A Story of Domination
by KE12
Summary: I decided to try my hand at developing a timeline that would be feasible in the ME universe for a humanity that has been space faring for 50,000 years. So, look inside to see my own take on how a 50,000-year-old space capable humanity would develop and prepare the galaxy for the Reaper onslaught. Serious HFY! story. Complete
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 **Alright, I've been working on this for quite a while on and off. The inspiration came from a few stories with advanced humanity, yet where timelines did not seem to be right, rushed, or something else just bugged me. With that in mind, I got curious as to if I could make a believable timeline for a 50,000 year more advanced humanity and now after however long this has been in the works, getting edited now and then, you get it to read.**

The Reapers are, despite the horrors they deliver, amazing machines, they have for billions of years cleansed the Milkyway every 50,000 years of sapient life, but they are the creation of the Catalyst, which in turn is the creation of Organics. For amazing as it claims to be, the Catalyst is imperfect alike its organic designers, and this flaw is apparent in its own creations, the Reapers, meaning very rarely, the unfathomable Reapers make a mistake. One such example of an error made by the Reapers is Humanity, a species that they missed for ascension when the Protheans ruled the vast abyss that is space.

51,176 BCE (Before Council Era), 2026AD

Humanity, having entered a new space race that is among privately funded companies, lands their first human on Mars for an eight-month research period, the achievement is considered to be one of Humanities finest moments, akin to landing man on the moon.

With feet on the ground, advanced research is undertaken to establish what will be required for a permanent colony on Mars. As this is also a privately funded mission, with some focus of the researching being in determining how to make money, the planet is surveyed for valuable materials available for mining with current automated mining technologies. Mars is determined to be rich in iron, chromium and magnesium, among a few other uninteresting elements. The largest surprise is the abundance of Titanium, this only acts as encouragement for the companies to mine Mars and reap her riches.

All these discoveries pale however when a man named Richard Mackee finds a single cell living organism on Mars. The science discovery is hailed as one of the Humanities most important.

2029AD

With ever expanding spaceflight capabilities, and a desire to increase human presence in space, The United Nations along with the approval of most non-member nations allows for companies to apply for permission to mine astronomical bodies, including Mars. The only exception to this rule is the Moon and any bodies which pass within 250,000km of Earth.

Any mined body also must not be brought within 250,000km of Earth; this is to provide a buffer zone in case-control over the body is lost, meaning if it approaches Earth measures can be taken to destroy the body or even re-establish its orbit. Numerous companies complain that this rule is over precautious, with an acceptable limit being 125,000km, but their complaints land on deaf ears.

2031AD

Numerous companies combine resources and launch a permanent mining colony on Mars, initial population, 6, all of which are female due to numerous studies proclaiming women would handle the close confines of colony life better than males. The colonist's main task on Mars is the operation and maintenance of automated mining equipment. For the foreseeable future, this is a one-way journey for the 6 colonists. Life-giving resources such as food will be delivered every 9 months from Earth.

2032AD

3D food printers are developed, allowing for a wide range of foods to be created from organic materials, they can create a wide array of foods from fruits to certain meats. While good for a newly developed technology, many complain the printed foods don't taste quite right. In other news, a test run to harpoon an asteroid to bring into a high orbit around the Earth, (No closer than 250,000km) is successful. Plans are drawn to harpoon a bigger asteroid for mining.

2035AD

Mark Watney, a NASA astronaut is stranded on Mars after a mission goes south, he is rescued by personnel from the privately funded colonies.

2039AD

Mars permanent population now exceeds 13, established hydroponic farms, state of the art 3d printers and new recycling technologies now mean the colony is less reliant on Earth for resources. Estimated to be self-sufficient by 2060 at earliest. Asteroid 241 Germania is 'harpooned' by a private space mining company, but efforts to bring it into the 250,000km orbit around earth fails due to a catastrophic hardware failure. A second attempt is scheduled for 2042AD.

2042AD

241 Germania is successfully harpooned and slowly dragged to the UN established mining zone. Significant Wars between India, Pakistan and China break out, cited reason is rising tensions between the three superpowers due to a trade war. Rest of the world watch with trepidation as the three nuclear powers brutally clash.

2044AD

With Pakistan on the edge of defeat, it launches a biological attack. The attack is successfully halted by US, Chinese and Russian missile defence systems. Nato and Russian forces in an unprecedented move blitzkrieg Pakistan in a joint peacekeeping mission. Tensions rise between the peacekeeping forces and China. India wisely backs down.

2045AD

China backs down against the peacekeeping forces due to overwhelming opposition. The 3-way war, as it has come to be known, is officially ended with the signing of a peace treaty. Death tolls are barely below 100 million.

A room temperature superconductor finishes testing and begins mass production, allowing for ever cheaper, more efficient and faster processor units.

2046.

A Large biological attack in China re-ignites the 3-way war between India and China. Peacekeeping forces once more step up and quell the fighting. A DMZ is established along the India-China border.

China, wanting to gain an unprecedented economy advantage over India funds a mission to mine numerous astronomical bodies. It is high risk considering they will need to divert large funds from their military. With a large percentage of Chinas GDP being diverted to Military and Space spending a famine begins.

2056AD

Mars is now self-sufficient and has a population of 28 but regularly receives luxury goods such as meat and hard to produce fruits and vegetables.

2060

A post stamp sized satellite is sent to the nearest star system to Earth using a Large Laser Array to propel it to unfathomable speeds. It will hopefully arrive in 20 years.

2085

Humanity cheers as it receives the first images taken in a foreign solar system. Messages to and from the post stamp-sized satellites take 4+ years.

2098

Mars has a population exceeding 50, most of these are engineers and scientists.

2099

Fearing a potential food shortage for the ever-growing population, the UN, with Australias blessing begins to convert vast swathes of Australia into farmland.

2102

A theory of FTL Technology is proved to work, in theory, the limiting factor is generating the energy for a device to test the theory. Research into new energy types for the FTL tech is given the green light and becomes the new 'space race'.

2109

An AI is successfully created, it is called Adam and has the intelligence of a rat. Work is conducted to increase its intelligence.

2116

Adam graduated from pre-school. 3 AI are now in existence, bill of AI rights is drafted for future AI, heavily based on bill of human rights. It is initially signed in 2117 by 31 Nations. Many still oppose AI.

2121

A rebellion begins in China to overthrow the regime in control, and peacekeeping forces from the UN and Russia aid the rebels. This war will be known to future generations as the War of Fire because of the mass use of incendiary devices. From this war, leaps and bounds is made in treating burn victims and radiation sickness. Medigel is one such medical invention from this war.

2125

With 99.999% of the human population still effectively confined to Earth, efforts begin to fix the mass damage to Earths ecosystems. Laws are started to be pushed in many countries which aim to return Earth to her 'glory' days.

2138

Titan, a moon around Jupiter, is colonised by European businesses in a joint venture, that is publically and economically backed by the EU and UK governments. Behind closed doors, the governments funding the mission want to conduct research that is illegal on Earth, particularly related to genetic engineering. At the same time, heavy mining begins, along with research into methods of mining Jupiter. No plans are currently in the works to mine Jupiter, this is all theoretical.

2153

An AI is constructed entirely of nano-bots. It differs from other AI because its intelligence grows as the number of nano-bots in the system grow.

2154

The nano-bot AI finds new ways to control, replicate and use nano-bots. Research is made on making a nano-bot that the body will not reject for its medical potential.

2156

UK rejoins the EU after the defunct system that governs the countries involved undergoes major reforms to reflect the current world. The EU is renamed to 'Allied nations' [AN] as more and more countries outside of Europe mainland petition for membership.

2157

A space elevator is proposed by the Allied nations to be constructed in the North Atlantic sea, and member nations overwhelming vote for its construction, hoping it will give the AN an unprecedented advantage in the space ventures. This construct will make the AN capable of launching space missions for next to nothing when compared with current techniques. The USA not wanting to be beat at their own game starts plans for their own elevator.

2162

A researcher named Frederick Iowa implants himself with a nano-bot AI, called 'I' with its permission after research allows nano-bots to exist in the human body without issue. The researcher can mentally interact with the AI that uses the man's body heat for energy.

In the same year, genetically augmented soldiers begin to quietly enter service in a handful of European countries, the research to create these augmented soldiers is credited to the research base on Titan. Each generation of augmented soldier is more powerful and dangerous than the last.

2163

The public is won over by the idea of implanting nano-bots when it is shown 'I's bots can heal Frederick's body at an unprecedented rate. Someone with embedded AI is referred to as a Symbiont. The USA begins its space elevator.

2178

AN Space elevator completed six years behind schedule after unseen problems arise, a spaceship construction yard in space is the next project for the AN. Additionally, an antimatter reactor is created on Titan, but suffers a catastrophic failure, destroying the colony in a flash of light that can be seen from Earth. 10,126 lives are lost in the tragedy, resulting in all antimatter research being banned on Earth and her colonies, fearing a repeat of Titan.

2183

USA space elevator complete with help from the AN. Plans for a joint venture between AN and USA to mine Jupiter is put forward but dismissed as Earth currently has enough resources coming in. India begins construction of their own Elevator after seeing the mega construct can be created.

2185

Humanity is shocked when a baby born by two nano-bot implanted parents is born with an AI created from both parents nano-bots, essentially creating a new AI naturally. With the help of the AI in its body, this child develops mentally far faster than most humans and can be considered a genius. This is the first of many children born with AI.

2187

The Augmented soldiers are discovered by other nations, forcing the practice to come to an end under revised geneva conventions.

2189

Element Zero is produced at the SLHC (Super Large Hadron Collider) in Switzerland by mistake. New element causes an uproar in the science community for its unique ability to defy the law of physics by changing mass of objects around it when an electric current is applied to the substance. Nano-bot implanted community now exceeds 1 million. The number of children born with AI is now in the thousands.

An AN spaceship named ANV Dream deep in space successfully contains an Antimatter reactor, named AMR for 2 hours. Power generated by AMR far exceeds expectations. In the same year, this ship explodes with a flash of light that can only have been produced in an anti-matter explosion. 108 AN researchers presumed lost as no debris of the Dream is found. The public is strangely motivated by this failure to conquer antimatter once and for all.

2190

ANV Dreamer's Vengence launched with the mission to conquer Anti-matter. AMR2 shows greater promise at containing the dangerous material.

2193

Antimatter strikes once again and destroys Dreamer's Vengence, AN and USA vow to conquer the substance and state this is an unfortunate event, but research will go on. Artificial gravity is created using element zero. Quantum entangled communication (QEC) is cracked and allows instant communication from any point in the known universe.

2201

A ship manned by a dumb intelligence is sent to Alpha Centauri. Element zero is used to reduce the mass of the ship, and massive ion engines propel it to 5% the speed of light. It will arrive in 20 years.

2215

Anti-matter is considered conquered after a research ship named ANV Conquerer contains an AMR for 10 years without issue. Conqueror deliberately causes an antimatter explosion in its final days when testing the limits of the reactor. As everyone is vacated from the ship there are no deaths.

On Mars, terraforming begins in a small sphere of influence 5 miles in diameter, the area is protected by a huge EM shield. Initial forecasts of terraforming show within 10 years, the sphere of influence will have an atmosphere capable of supporting some basic biological life, and within 50 years be breathable by a human for a short time.

On Earth, a cargo waggon carrying element zero crashes and leaks a small sample of Element Zero into a reservoir. People surrounding the water body and who use it for drinking water come sick overnight. Within days the cause of sickness is identified, and a crisis is declared as 10 million have potentially been exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. People with nano-bots seem unharmed as the bots repair the damage caused by the radiation rather quickly.

2216

First biotic human is born.

2222

The Dumb AI arrives at Alpha Centauri and begins pre destined research. The system is relatively boring when compared to Sol.

Russia after much-heated debate joins the Allied Nations.

48897 Before Council Era,

Javik enters stasis. Prothean empire is now considered defeated. Reapers return to dark space and the Collectors to the core of the galaxy.

2234

Augmented soldiers appear once more in many nations as youths with biotic powers come of age to join their respective military. Soon, every soldier on Earth is expected to have augmentations of some sort.

2249

With a reliable miniaturised Antimatter reactor created a ship is built to test the FTL device envisioned in 2102, surprisingly the device fails to move the ship any faster than 4.1% the speed of light. Astonishingly it is discovered power requirements are still too low, and a new approach is needed.

Most of humanity are now implanted with AI in the form of Nanobots.

2261

A new FTL test uses a small ship with huge superconductor capacitors to store charge, and 18 external high yield anti-matter reactors to charge them. The ship, which is unable to charge its capacitors on its own accord is propelled 15LY in 2 minutes. A dumb AI on the ship confirms its location via QEC. Humanity celebrates conquering FTL travel.

AN and 2 private companies put forward a 1 Billion credit reward for whoever can come up with a solution to the current FTL power requirements. The challenge is called the Vangher Challenge after the man whose method of FTL they are using.

Using the same approach as the earlier test ship, that being to charge it for FTL externally, the AN send scout ships to their nearest stars and begin mapping the galaxy. They average two test ships a year as the cost to send a ship is mind dizzyingly high. Ideas are put forward to construct the reactors required to power FTL in alien systems, but is shot down due to the mind-numbing cost per reactor.

2300

With a flourishing biosphere in spheres of influence on Mars, thanks to the terraforming, more and more civilians move in. Research is made to change the gravity experienced by the colony to a more habitable 1g.

2301

A reward for the Vangher challenge is claimed by a team from Ukraine. They proposed a new theory of FTL travel and the maths checks out. It requires the use of huge 'Element Zero Relays' to transport a ship from one sector of space to another. Energy requirements are far below the other method of FTL and constructing a relay is considerably less expensive and resource intensive than the huge AM reactors for 'traditional FTL' means.

The Allied Nations with the aid of the USA begins construction of two relays, one will be sent to a destination using the current proven FTL technology, and the other will be put into a geostationary orbit around Pluto. Construction is estimated to take 50 years for one relay as they require so much element zero. New facilities are constructed to create element zero from smashing atoms together; it is inefficient work but the only known method of forming the element.

2303

USA and China join the AN.

2339

With the new facilities dedicated in creating Eezo (Nickname for element Zero) Relay 1 is complete 12 years ahead of schedule, relay 2 starts construction.

2361

Relay two is constructed. The relay begins to be charged to be sent to its destination, Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest solar system to Sol with a planet in the habitable zone.

The terraformed habitat of Mars now has a bedrock laced with element zero, creating gravity of 1g. A new habitat is in the works for new colonists.

2365

With the huge relay's supercapacitors charged, it arrives at its destination in under 3 minutes. A dumb AI sets it up so that a test ship can be sent through the 'Relay Highway'.

3 Months Later a ship passes the relay highway and promptly turns heel to return to Sol, it is the first ship to come back to Sol after leaving.

With more and more nations joining the allied nations, armies become smaller and smaller, with the focus being on quality over quantity, this has resulted in 'super soldiers'. These 'super soldiers' are career soldiers with advanced genetic augmentation to make them stronger, smarter and faster than the average human, these soldiers would have been deemed highly illegal in the early 21st century.

2366

A human expedition to Proxima Centauri is underway, the first words spoken by a human (Symbiont) is "Per Aspera ad Astra" Meaning: Through Hardship to the Stars.

97.9% of humanity is implanted, most from nano-bots in their parent's ovum and sperm during conception. Ideas put forth to have two sets of humans, Symbionts, and Naturals. Plans shot down, fearing the labels would cause unneeded prejudice.

India joins AN a few days later.

2400

With eight relay highways in operation, Humanity continues to expand and explore the stars as a real space faring nation.

2441

A relay detonates in Hubble 6x0015, causing an explosion the size of a supernova. 17,953 colonists are caught up in the explosion, along with all the life native to the planets in the system. Attempts are made to find out why the relay exploded.

2442

With humanity fearing a repeat of Hubble 6x0015, the Relay orbiting Pluto is removed from Sol. All efforts possible are made to conjure a feasible energy source for the first FTL method convened by humanity.

2444

Immortality for all! Death from old age is no more. Most people choose to remain in their mid 20's, using their AI's nanobots to halt ageing.

2445

It is determined the relay that exploded was struck with an asteroid the size of a car going 112,500m/s, which caused its core to rupture. All known relays are worked on to add a titanium composite armour and protection against future collisions.

2446

The relay once orbiting Pluto is returned to its old orbit. It now features thick armour and a mass effect field that can be turned on and off to deflect items on a collision course. To travel the relay the ME field needs to be deactivated. Additional safety measures will be continued to be added to the relay as new technology is developed.

2500

With no known nano-bot free human in existence for 29 years, the definition of 'Humanity' is changed to include the nano-bots. The change of definition is made on the 2,500th new year celebration.

2517

A small Prothean ruin is found on a colony world. Earth sends its finest computer engineers to bring the alien computers online, and to begin mining them for information.

2519

Jake leans back in his chair as he looks at the monolith of a tuning fork that is positioned just outside of his space ship, "Well," Jake says as he then looks around the bridge, "I guess we found what we were told to look for."

"Sir," A younger none commissioned officer (NCO) asks of him after a moment of silence, "Is this what I think it is?"

"And what would that be?" Asks Jake.

"Well," the NCO begins, "That thing has all the signs of a relay, yet if my sensor readings are correct, it is positively not human. That," The NCO points out the forward observation window, "Is an alien construct."

Jake nods, "That would be my initial conclusion as well, but this is a science ship, not a hypothesis ship. Radio, I want an update to Highcomm, inform them we are investigating an unknown construct, and to wait out for a sitrep." The use of 'radio' in this way is funny to some, this is because radio's have not been used for primary communications on space ships for the better part of 50 years now as QEC over took it years ago.

As the communications officer reports back into High Command Jake continues to make orders to study the device, but he doesn't get far, "Sir." The 'radio' operator speaks up, "I have Admiral Thawn requesting to speak with you."

With a nod the communication officer patches the Admirals video call through to the bridge, "Sir," Captain Jake Ping salutes when the Admiral's image appears on the forward observation screen.

The admiral returns the salute, "Captain," The admiral then says, "What we are to speak of concerns you and your entire crew, from this moment onwards, you are all under none disclosure orders regarding this construct, with the most severe penalty for those who break this order." Death for those who speak. "The construct is to be considered hostile and is not to be approached under any circumstances. You are to await reinforcements from 2nd Patrol Fleet which will relieve you, and then you will take all recorded data and return to Military Complex Sierra Uniform 6 immediately."

"Understood, Sir." Jake replies, "In order to understand the situation better, may I request any information you can spare on the construct and time for reinforcements?" He is more than curious because at this moment in time, humanity does not have a true warship to provide 'reinforcements', instead, they have a small fleet of gunboats, which patrol cargo routes for pirates. While they may be armed with a limited selection of guided missiles, very few would consider them vessels of war when compared to heavily armed and even heavier armoured ships that once sailed the seven seas.

The admiral looks down to something on his desk before looking back to Jake, "We sent you to where you are now to confirm if the construct you are looking at was real, and we sorely hoped it was not. Captain, this construct is to be considered unfathomably dangerous, I want every sensor you have pointed at it, and you will continue to do so till reinforced…. Your relief will be arriving by weeks end. That is all."

After the call terminates Jake sits down and blows out a sigh, "Well," He then says, "You heard the admiral, 2IC, make sure section commanders inform their teams of none disclosure orders, I want 128 letters on my desk by days end confirming that each individual understands the orders, every letter hand written, dated and signed.

Furthermore, considering how spooked the Admiral is regarding this construct, we are to remain 500,000 km from it, I want us ready to flee at any moment, so engine capacitors are to maintain charge at all times. All communications are to be restricted to Highcomm only. All information gathered, previous and future, is to be encrypted, I want no one looking over it outside this bridge. You have your orders people, make it so."

2520

Humanity secretly declares war on an entity known by the name of Reapers. Plans are put forward to build their first true warship in space, a ship which is capable of handling more than just pirates and crooks. The cited reason for creating a warship is to protect humanity from 'Unwarranted aggression'.

2521

The Allied Nations is now recognised by all of the Humanity to be the dominant power in human space, but not reflective of all humans, especially those who live off the home planet. Reforms are made and the AN evolves to become the Systems Alliance.

All expansion into unknown space is quietly halted in order to hide from the Reapers.

Cerberus is created with the sole purpose of ensuring Humanities survival.

2589

The knowledge of the Reapers is 'leaked' to the public when nationalism is high. Support for warships grow. The leak is the possible work of Cerberus.

2592

A one-child policy is adopted on most colonies when the population becomes dangerously high from people not dying from age. Earth imposes a 0 child policy.

In the same decade, colonisation starts on Venus, as its surface is too hot, and with an atmospheric pressure equal to that 1km underwater on the surface, the colonists live on huge cloud cities.

2609

The generations-old power problem is solved! Using some super complex science, scientists from Wales use dark energy to power a ship into FTL. Earth celebrates the historic announcement with a year of celebrations. The science team behind the announcement will be immortalised in song, culture and name.

2810

"Do the impossible!" Is humanities moto. A transporter is made, not fit for use on live subjects as it tears the atoms down and rebuilds them at a second location. Most agree the person rebuilt is not the same person, but a replicant.

Most of humanity does not work as there is a basic income for all which is rather generous. Those who do work are held in high esteem and paid ludicrously well. Most manned jobs are in government, science, entertainment, military, and engineering positions.

4107

Mars atmosphere, no matter the location is now breathable. A Mass Machine slowly starts to change Mars gravity to 1g outside of the element zero treated bedrock.

4269

A weapon capable of causing stars to go supernova is created in secret, Cerberus destroy all evidence of its creation, and its creator mysteriously vanishes overnight.

4781

A transporter that does not tear atoms down is created, the age-old power problem renews to power the device.

4888

Venus is now an entire cloud city like something out of a sci-fi book.

4944

The power issue is fixed, allowing a human to transport to any location they wish in the blink of an eye in the entire universe. High operation costs limit range and render this product for the insanely rich, or governments.

With this invention, Humanity surpasses any other civilisation in technological prowess that the Reapers have previously harvested. The Reapers still slumber in the dark space between galaxies, blissfully unaware of the growing giant in their galaxy.

5220

Humanity creates their first Enforcer, this is a genetically engineered super soldier who can command humanities war assets with a mere thought. If you anger humanity, it is the enforcer's job to pacify you.

Each colony have their own enforcer to protect it, and every colony must provide war assets to a fleet commanded by another Enforcer. Unlike other Enforcers dedicated to protecting colony worlds, this additional Enforcer, referred to as the 'ET Enforcer', is to deal with alien affairs and lead any offensive against external threats, including the Reapers.

5371

With the huge amount of resources being mined from local systems, a huge 'halo' 1km wide and 30,000km in circumference is constructed around Mars, the halo will serve as a giant shipyard and living quarters. Considered one of Humanities many wonders when complete. Plans are also in the works to transform a barren colony world called New Sahara into a mega city like some fictional stories of the past imagined.

5933

Prothean scientists sabotage the Keepers on the Citadel, they will no longer respond to Sovereign's calls.

7,145

New Sahara is now a giant city, capable of housing trillions of humans. Mass immigration occurs since there are no rules or limitations in producing offspring on this planet-city. This world will become the most populated human colony by the year 7,311, and overtake Earth shortly after. Many will argue New Sahara should replace earth as the Systems Alliance homeworld, but most cannot deny the lure of Earth.

12,818

Pure energy shields are cracked, they could withstand a blast from a dreadnought and barely flicker. Warships are retrofitted with the technology and the Enforcers are given a portable version.

12,910

A Prothean team awakens and detonates dozens upon dozens of eezo bombs on the Asari homeworld. They hope by saturating Thessia with eezo they will force the Asari to become natural biotics, allowing for every Asari to be a capable warrior.

13666

A top-secret bio-mechanical weapon is constructed with the hopes it will never need to be deployed, the scientists working on the project call it 'Xenomorph'. The weapon is incapable of targeting humans unless directly ordered to by an enforcer.

14,111

Wireless energy for all! Who liked wires anyway? Enforcer uses this technology on their shields, allowing a huge dark energy generator on their homeworld to power it. Enforcers shields are considered impenetrable to all but the most powerful of weaponry.

15,093

It is discovered most galaxies have their own 'Reapers' in some form or another. Andromeda has the deceiving Remnant, NGC 2419 has the Flood, and Barnards Galaxy has the AOC. When powerful enough, Humanity will rid the universe of these entities. The most dangerous entity known is the Ales of Kepler NF544 who are tens of thousands of years more advanced than the reapers.

26,977

After 300 years of brutal training, Jane Shepard becomes Humanities latest ET Enforcer after the previous enforcer stands down to raise a family.

31,506

Humanity, running out of resources begin to mine stars and expand to a few additional systems barren of all life for automated mining. All precautions are made to ensure the Reapers are not in the systems they expand to. If a planet is mined, it is literally torn apart and delivered to where its resources are required. After mining finishes, a planet will be destroyed, and unrecognisable from an asteroid field.

A Second halo begins construction with a diameter of 100,000km and 500 km wide, it will act as Humanities primary military establishment and will orbit Sol in a carefully established orbit between Mars and Earth. This orbit is selected so the halo's gravitational pull does not disrupt the orbit of any other planet in system.

47,489

The Asari discover the Citadel, resulting in the Catalyst awakening Sovereign to watch over the current cycle.

The collectors begin to collect genetic samples of the Asari in preparation for the harvest.

47,602

Humanity discovers the Asari and Salarians on long-range sensors; efforts are made to discretely learn more about the species and astonishingly genetic samples gained by the ET enforcer reveal the Asari are genetic cousins to humanity. Plans are made to protect the species. In studying the Asari up close the ET Enforcer unwittingly creates the B'Sayle bloodline on Thessia.

47,965

The Citadel Council is formed, the Salarians and Asari are the first species to hold a seat. The ET enforcer sends agents to infiltrate the two governments. The agents are observers only, they are prevented by the Enforcer from trying to influence the law.

47902

The Rachni war erupts. Humanity watches on with trepidation and prepares to step in if necessary. Currently, humanity is unknown to the rest of the universe.

47,981

A Prothean ruin is found with Protheans in stasis, many have died in their slumber, but medical nanobots are a wonderful thing and can restore them to life. Humanity sends the ET Enforcer to wake them.

/.../

Jasair groans as he sits up while opening his four eyes, "Ugh," He moans to the other Protheans in the room who are also just awakening. "How long were we under?"

A Prothean falls out of his stasis pod before scrambling to his feet and checking the ancient computer that is flickering on a wall near the pod he awoke in. "This can not be right!" The Prothean says, "48,762 years."

"No," A third Prothean speaks, "I have the same here. Why were we not awoken earlier?"

The first Prothean gets out of his stasis pod and checks his own console at the bottom of his pod. He checks the code of the VI running the system. "The VI malfunctioned. We appear to have been awoken by an unknown entity."

This causes everyone in the room to stiffen, "Unknown entity?"

"Yes." The man replies while blinking his top two eyes, "I am checking data feeds now..." The man worked for a minute before the system crashes. "Damn this VI, if only I could shoot it out an airlock."

The second Prothean sighs heavily, "Maybe it was the primitives, they should have evolved to being space capable by now."

"Yes, and maybe it was Iovkaslad," Jasair buts in, causing the entire room to chuckle a little despite their situation. "Whatever, or whoever awoken us we will surely find out soon. For now, we take stock of our situation. Find out who is alive and who isn't."

2 hours later Jasair is in high spirits, somehow, despite their scientist's estimations of 30% survival rate, and the fact power to the stasis machines should have cut off a long, long time ago, everyone is alive. Not that he is complaining, but he doesn't like it, something is wrong and it's probably due to the entity that has awoken them. "Cale, how is the facility?" He asks a younger Prothean when she returns from checking the bunker over. In this bunker, there are far more females than males, its primary goal was to ensure Protheans lived on after the harvest.

The Prothean female says, "Several facilities have caved in, but have been dug out relatively recently. Someone has been here, Jasair!"

"Then they are probably watching us. Have our men ready to greet them."

A blinding white light forms in front of the Prothean leader and a feminine figure emerges from the light. "That will not be necessary," Shepard says in perfect Prothean. "We woke you because we wanted to save your species, not fight you."

Jasair knows of the 11 primitive species that should have evolved into this cycle, but he is unfamiliar with the one standing before him. "What are you?" He asks.

"A human," Shepard responds, "When the Reapers harvested your species, they missed mine while we took our first steps into space. We have been preparing for their invasion for just shy of 50,000 years."

"Good," Jasair replies, "Then you will defeat them. We determined that the Reapers are technologically stagnant, being ten thousand years more advanced then we were. If you speak the truth, your species should be far more advanced than them."

"That is the hope." Shepard smiles, "Now for why I am here. We want to help you return to your former glory, and if I get your word our ambassador will not be attacked, we will begin talks on how we will do that."

Jasair looks around the room, many of his people were discretely aiming their weapons at the alien. He wants to reject her offer, it is an insult to believe they would not be able to return to their former glory on their own, but right now his people do not need to make enemies when they are in dire need, any help would be appreciated. "You have mine, and my people's word." He then says with a hard look at his people, letting them know she and her ambassador are under his protection.

"Good." Shepard says before a white light forms next to her and a second figure walks through, this one is a male. "Ambassador Udina, this is General Jasair of the Prothean Empire, General, this is Ambassador Udina of the Systems Alliance."

"Thank you Shepard." Udina replies to her before saying, "You're dismissed, good day Enforcer." After a mere nod to say she heard Shepard vanishes in another flash of white light, but while she is not in view, she will keep a close eye on the ambassador and jump in if he needs her.

47,982

As the Rachni rampage across the galaxy the Salarians uplift the Krogan in desperation, and soon with the warrior race at their back, the war turns in the Councils favour. Efforts are made to save some Rachni before they are made extinct, and a Queen egg is brought to a human system. Under human guidance, the Rachni will once more thrive, but this time with a guiding entity they will be a force for peace.

47,983

Humanity growing bolder unleashes a virus into the citadel systems that will remain hidden while mining data. The galaxy is still unaware of the hiding giant. The Virus detects a heavy presence of Reaper code in the citadel, confirming the Prothean suspicion that it is a Reaper device.

48,676

Krogan rebellions plunge the galaxy once more into war, Turians join the galactic community and fight for the Council.

49,831

Genophage released by the Salarians causes the Krogans to end their war. Humanity develops a cure within hours of confirming the bioweapons existence but does not deploy it, wanting the Krogans to unite under their hardship.

50,416,

The Geth war starts.

While the wider Galaxy is distracted with the Geth, Humanity reveals themselves to a Krogan Mercenary.

/.../

Wrex looks at his omni-tool and grumbles miserably, his current contract has him hunting some rat of a Vorcha on Omega, and he is up to his knees in shit, filth, corpses and who knows what else in the shit hole of a sewage system he is wading through. Afterlife better have a good supply of ryncol tonight as he will need it to forget the smell of this place.

Wading further into the place forgotten by the entire galaxy he spots something moving in the shadows and raises his gun, but a voice calls to him in perfect Krogan, "That will not be necessary, Urdnot Wrex." The lack of hissing tells the Krogan it is not the Vorcha he is hunting.

Wrex shines his omni-tool at the figure, and tries to reveal its face, but a helmet masks it from him, "And why is that?" From the figure of the alien, he assumes it's an Asari.

"I know all about you," Shepard says as she starts to circle him in the dark tunnel, like a predator. "Such as why you did not blindly shoot me, like why you are still listening to what I have to say, and your plans for the Krogan people," Shepard notices Wrex tighten his grip on his weapon, "Do not threat, I like what words you are saying."

Wrex keeps his shotgun aimed at her, "And what am I saying?"

"You're speaking of the need to unite the clans, to forget your vengeful ways and rebuild your civilisation. They are goals I can get behind."

"Hah," Grumbles Wrex, he lowers his shotgun when Shepard stands still a few feet in front of him, "If only my people could listen."

"That can be seen to, but I want you to answer me now," Shepard removes her mask with a mere thought, causing it to collapse in on its self down her neck, and says, "Do you mean it?"

Wrex is startled by the odd alien, "What are you?"

"Potentially your people's salvation. Now tell me, do you mean it?"

"I may be Krogan but I ain't stupid, if we keep going how we are we won't live to see the next millennium. Now, why have I got a feeling you are about to offer me something?"

Shepard immediately transports the two of them to a satellite station around New Sahara, from the station tens of thousands of warships can be seen orbiting the megacity below. Wrex is physically startled at being transported and looks around with his shotgun in hands. "Where are we?" He demands, "What have you done to me?"

"I've brought you to my base of operations, I was getting nauseous in that wretched tunnel." Shepard approaches a counter and pours Wrex a drink of ryncol, and herself a good whisky from 100 years back. "Wrex, my people are a resourceful bunch, and we know a war is coming to the galaxy the likes it has never seen before. We need the Krogan in fighting condition."

Wrex holsters his shotgun as he looks around, the number of ships in orbit around New Sahara obviously show that this odd aliens people are a warmongering bunch, or highly protective of their stuff, he hopes its the latter. "A war with who."

"I can not disclose that information yet, for your own safety you must understand, but it is not with the Council or any species you know of if that is what you are fearing."

"Pity," Wrex says with obvious sarcasm, "But what does this have to do with me?"

"I am going to help you unite the clans, and when you have them under your thumb and on a path to a more peaceful existence, I will cure the genophage for you."

Wrex eyes her carefully, "Careful, alien; we do not joke about that."

"I know you have your doubts," Shepard nods, "If you agree to help us, you will find a package waiting for you in your apartment on Omega, it will demonstrate we have the capabilities to cure your people. Just please test in discrete, the last thing you want me to do is ensure our secret stays secret."

"Alright," Wrex says, "I'm game. What do you need me to do?"

"First of all, forget all you have seen here, my species does not exist. Once you have done that I will be in touch shortly, for now, return to the Citadel, we have a meeting set up with someone who can aid you, and Wrex?" The Krogan grunts in response, "Do not fail me. If your people become violent and risk galactic security again, I will not hesitate to put you and your people down." The Krogan for some reason gets a chill run up his spine, he knows in his bones that this alien means what she says, and he does not doubt she will not follow through with her word. "This war that is coming will need all of us to work together."

The next thing the Krogan knows he is back in the dark smelly tunnels with a flash of white light. checking his omni-tool he finds the contract on the duct rat has been completed and the credits for the job are loaded into his account. Not knowing what to think he heads back to his apartment, and inside he finds a small white box, laying on his wooden plank of a bed.

Approaching the box he opens it carefully and inside he finds three needles fit for use on a Krogan neatly stored, with a piece of paper saying, "Proof of our cure, do not fail me Urdnot Wrex. Your mysterious friend."

/…/

50,420

The ET enforcer 'kidnaps' a Quarian live ship. Initially the Quarians reject any help from their kidnapper but eventually they are won over by the Enforcer. These Quarians establish New Rannoch and do not require bio-suits. They are confined to within human space.

50,502

The head of STG rubs his right horn unconsciously as he thinks, the genophage has unexpectedly failed, the Krogans are now immune to it, and any variance of the disease, and while it appears like a natural immunity, he doubts it. Natural immunity would have been discovered long before now and nipped in the bud before it could affect the entire Krogan population. No, this must be the work of an outside source, but who? The Krogan are not developed enough in bio-engineering to develop a cure, the Turians are vehemently for the genophage, probably wanting it harsher than it already is, and the Asari while not fans of the genophage, understand it is a necessary evil. So this leaves either a lower member of the council or an incredibly smart and resourceful body not sponsored by a species government.

But if this were the case, then the STG would have gotten wind of it. Work in this field would have left traces, it would have required samples, and years upon years of work, and finally for someone to release it. But in every STG investigation, nothing is found. Not even a slither. Yes, one or two entities were found to be working on a cure, but they were a hundred years away from developing a basic one, the one in circulation is advanced, if not more advanced than the Genophage its self.

It is certainly a mystery for the STG head to ponder on, and in other news, who is the mystery Asari helping the Krogan develop into a civilised species? The Asari who goes by the moniker 'Enforcer' has appeared next to Urdnot Wrex numerous times now, usually at events of great importance to the Krogan and appears to be a guiding figure. All attempts to identify her have failed miserably and agents sent to dispatch of her have all met a swift end. The name Enforcer is a curious choice too, it infers that this Asari is working for another organisation, but which organisation would that be?

It is also possible that this 'Enforcer' is the same entity as the mysterious contractor, going by the same moniker used by the most powerful people in society, but that can not easily be proven. All the STG knows about her is any attempts to kill or capture the Asari has resulted in numerous dead agents.

Yes, it is fair to say the STG is currently stumped with the situation on Tachunka.

Meanwhile, Wrex laughs heartedly with some friends over some ryncol as they celebrate the construction of a university on Tachunka, the first in a few thousand years. Working with the humans had really paid off, he is now in control of Tachunka, and in his opinion leading his people back to their once glorious former selves. Their people now have some culture once more, along with something concrete to fight for, and it is a fantastic feeling.

As he tried to unite the clans, he was informed of numerous Spectre, STG or commando assassination attempts, but each time the mysterious human stopped them before they could even get close to him.

When he had successfully united the clans, directed them onto a peaceful path and began rebuilding Unka, a now glorious city, the human released her cure, and almost overnight his people were cured. It was a pity it required the assassination of many of his opponents stuck in their vengeful old ways, but his people are better off for it now.

When it came evident to the council that their weaponised disease had failed, they tried to claim they removed the weapon because of their good behaviour, but Wrex knew better. While he wanted to tell the truth to his fellow people that it was the humans who helped them, the mysterious alien told him to accept the council's lie, so he did, even if it pained him to do so as he knew they have tried to assassinate him numerous times now.

As Wrex celebrates on the surface Shepard is disguised once more in her Asari image, and has a Spectre cornered in a dark room in some caverns deep under Unka. "What are you?" Asks the Asari in terror as she fires round after round into the human, the rounds do nothing against the human's impossible orange shields.

Shepard raises her hand and the Asari is captured in an orange field of pure energy, preventing her from escaping. The Asari could struggle all she wants but she would never escape the Enforcers field. "Have you not killed enough Krogan?" She asks the Asari.

"They've killed billions of us!" The Asari splutters.

"And you have killed trillions of them. Everything they have done has been because of your own doing." Scolds Shepard as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "Can you not let them continue this peaceful path they are on? What will detonating that nuclear device win you?"

The Asari is silent so Shepard lets her free of the energy field. "If you or another spectre set foot on Tachunka again with the intention of mass destruction I will not be held responsible for my actions. Also, I am sick of killing your kin to protect Urdnot Wrex and myself, so we are off limits too, understood?"

The Asari tries to hurl a biotic throw at the Enforcer when she thinks she has a chance to injure the alien, but the energy is deflected by the energy field surrounding the human. This failed attack causes Shepard to tilt her head slightly and say, "Sometimes, you need to know when you are beat, Vasir, it is about time I teach you that." The Asari will not forget the brutal punishment she receives that day.

50,601

Humanity detects Sovereign colluding with a Spectre, all efforts are made to slow the Reaper down while acting from the shadows. Before the Reaper can launch an attack on the citadel it is destroyed by an enforcers battlegroup. With Reapers now certain of their existence humanity begins final preparations for the coming storm.

50,602,

A turian patrol in uncharted space finds a Human relay and mining operation.

/…./

Captain Dients Ntrol of the Turian rapid response fleet looks at the construct that opposes his vessel, it is undeniably a Relay, yet it looks different from what he is used to, this device has patches of armour protecting it, and a more boxy design. Obviously built for function, not aesthetics, he thinks before ordering his men to, "Prepare our ships to go through, and someone, inform the council."

After a few 'Yes sir's' Dients watches as his ship approaches the relay, but instead of being flung to a faraway place his ship shudders and groans, while throwing anything not bolted into the ground forward, crew included.

"Report damn it!" Demands Dients as he stands upright, a hand held to his head rubbing a sore point.

It takes a sensor expert a few seconds to work out what happened, "Captain, we have run into a barrier of some sort that encircles the machine. Sensors are struggling to determine its nature."

"Barrier?" Demands Dients, "What relay has a barrier protecting it?"

"This one apparently. For now, I can not see a way through."

Dients growls in classic Turian fashion before saying, "Then order all ships to pull back to a safe location and blockade the relay, the last thing we need is an unknown coming through in force and catching us in water."

As the ships form a blockade around the relay, the sensors expert speaks again, "Captain! I have an inbound vessel, it's... it's 20km in length!"

"20KM!?" Asks the captain with a mangled voice, "Hail them! And order formation A2 facing the target. Leave 2 vessels to watch our flank."

The crew waits nervously for the hail the be answered, but no one picks up, and the ship continues its path to the relay. Not wanting to antagonise a species capable of building a 20km long ship Dients allows the ship to venture the relay. "Captain, I've triangulated the ships origin point, it's a planet not far from here."

"Send a scout."

two days later the Council are in disarray, the scout ship found a planet being torn apart and mined by autonomous machines, and every attempt at communicating with whoever owns the machines has failed as they simply have not come across the owners. But they have made efforts to resolve this issue. First of all, they have hidden probes in the mined material that will inform them where the relay directs to, but this fails, the probes never respond once they enter the alien super ships. So then they come up with their latest plan. They have discovered when a ship from the mined planet ventures the relay the huge devices barriers form a hole big enough for it to pass through, so when a ship goes through the barrier, they will send a scout ship with it. Or this is the plan, and they should be ready to go in 3 days.

one day later

Qxiaem was having a boring day, Deep Space Traffic Control had noticed a few issues with a human relay they were using in a mining system, and he was sent to find out what was wrong. If you asked him the humans should be dealing with this, but hey ho, those humans probably have some plan in forcing his people to look after their relays. Dropping from the relay his day changed, definitely for the worse. "Spirits!" He mused to himself at seeing the large fleet facing him down.

"Qxiaem, we are being hailed," The ships VI called. While Protheans accept the humans are one with AI, it did not mean his species liked it, so they stuck to smart VI's for now.

"Answer the primitives, and inform the Higher Echelons of my situation." The Prothean Empire may have recovered some in the two thousand years they have been out of stasis, but it is not at a state to wage war with an alien civilisation as they lack the numbers due to their slow reproduction cycle, and are certainly not in a state to face down the Reapers.

The VI accepts the hail, adapting the alien code for use in its own systems, and a blue human-looking female appears on a view screen before Qxiaem, saying, "Surlak Vaks, up Nah iheem dasgi."

"VI, do your job!" The Prothean instructs.

The speech was translated for him into text form, ~ "Unidentified vessel, state your intentions."

The Prothean grumbled a bit about having to declare his intentions in Prothean space but responds none the less, "This space belongs to the New Prothean Empire! You are to leave immediately." He commands.

When the humans agreed to help the Protheans it was on one condition; they would rebuild in a designated section of space, where the Reapers could not find them. While being limited to space they could expand in was not ideal, the Protheans ultimately accepted this deal, as the Systems Alliance promised help they could not turn down, mainly unlimited resources and ships for the defence of their new homeworld.

/.../

When Ambassador Irissa got informed she was needed in this dark stingy corner of space, she expected to find a primitive species early in its space age. What she did not expect was an abundance of 20km long cargo vessels, and for when the first contact is established, for the word 'Prothean' to be thrown around, along with a vaguely recognisable alien. The Council's most powerful translator software managed to translate the alien's speech into standard galactic quickly. "Scan the ship," Irissa says off camera after listening to the aliens demands, ", and send its design along with a picture of the alien to Matriarch Sat'Tone, then get me a direct line to her."

After a few moments, the Matriarch answers the ambassador, voice only. "Irissia, this is a lovely surprise..."

"Matriarch Sivia," Irissia says, using the matriarchs title and a tone told Sivia that this was a professional call, with anything else being off the table. "I've sent you a file, I need you to take a look and tell me what you think, and time is of the essence!"

Sivia mumbled about being disappointed before saying, "A ship with Prothean art decorating the hull? Where did you find this? And this alien, I have only seen anything like this on planets with Prothean monuments."

Irissia immediately replies, "Your insight has been most helpful, but I have to go," Turning to an officer she says, "Contact the council, tell them we possibly have made contact with the Protheans." She then turns to another officer, "Re-open comms,"

/.../

Qxieem taps his long narrow fingers on the controls of his ship as he listens to the alien's response, "Prothean Surlak, Loi merge Irissia li Asari tigha, ut nak z bagh usas suuvi jovif sans livion."

The Prothean wonders at times why they rejected the humans AI's, for surely they could do a far better job at translating this garbage real time.

~"Prothean vessel, I am ambassador Irissia of the Asari Republics and by extension the Citadel Council, we are here to establish peaceful relations between our people."

Qxieem checks to see if the Higher Echelons have replied, or forwarded him instructions, they haven't. Just as he is about to order the aliens out of Prothean space again, the human ET Enforcer orders him to placate the aliens, and that the Prothean Echelons will shortly dispatch a diplomatic team. He is to stay opposite the alien ships in the meantime. Before this cycle, the Protheans would not have taken orders from another species, but he is wise enough not to disobey the orders of a Human Enforcer, that is a sure way to make a dangerous enemy. After reading the enforcers message he speaks to the aliens, "You will wait for our diplomatic party. Do not make an attempt to approach the human's relay or further disturb our mining efforts. Do not contact me again!"

/.../

To Qxieems frustration it is a week and a half before a Prothean diplomatic vessel arrives, but calling it a diplomatic ship is a bit of a lie. The ship is nothing short of a warship, and the Protheans best flagship at that. After all, they need to intimidate these primitives into siding with them.

Irissia meanwhile gasps a little, the ship that has just dropped out the relay is slightly larger than the Destiny Ascension and as angular as a Turian dreadnought. Energy readings of the ship are off the chart. She does not doubt it could tear her own ship, and maybe fleet, apart without much effort. "Hail them," She orders after giving a second to swallow her fear.

"No need, my lady, they are hailing us." A maiden replies formally.

Irissia straightens out her dress since after all first presentation is everything in this day of age. "On screen."

A second later a Prothean appears on the screen. "Asari Vessel," The Prothean says in perfect galactic as it eyes the aliens on its own view screen, "I am Ambassador Ital Rmat of the New Prothean Empire Navy. State your intentions in our space or prepare to be moved on."

"Thank you Ambassador Ital Rmat for coming to speak with us; I am ambassador Irissia of the Asari Republics and by extension Citadel Council. I come with the hopes of establishing peaceful first contact."

"You have many warships here for peaceful intentions, ambassador."

"Rest assured they are for defensive purposes only."

There is a pause as the Prothean reads some instructions from an enforcer off-screen. "Asari, you will come aboard my vessel for continued talks." The screen then cuts off, and a data package informs Irissia of where she needs to go, and what she can bring.

"They are most arrogant," The ship's captain says, and Irissia blinks in agreement. "Yes, they are even allowing a full squad of commandos to accompany me." Granted that is only five personnel, but 5 Asari commandos are more than capable of holding back a horde of angry Krogan in the confined corridors of a space ship.

"If they are Protheans however, they have 50,000 years of development to their name. They were walking among the stars while we were living in caves. We can not blame them for their arrogance."

"Yes, I suppose so. Sensi, I am going to substitute a few of the commandos' for Prothean experts if I may. Armed of course."

The captain blinks to her, "As you wish, just be careful Irissia. These people could be more dangerous than anything else we know of. Ensure peace."

"For peace, I will sacrifice, for war, I will bleed." Smiles Irissa, citing the Asari ethos when dealing with foreign bodies. "I will leave now."

/../

Ital Rmat is stood tall in his ships hanger bay, he is a proud Prothean, and it shows. His maroon armour is polished and shining, his rank is proudly displayed, and his hardened cretin like plates that protect his vital points are scrubbed clean as any good Protheans should be. The rank of Ambassador is new to the Protheans since usually, his species dominates indiscriminately and then establish themselves as the new species leader, but this doctrine died with the old Prothean Empire. If the New Empire tried that the Humans would leash them in with what would likely be an iron fist. He hates to admit it, but the humans are their overlords right now, not too unlike how his own species were to many other races during their cycle.

When the Asari vessel docks, he stands a little bit taller and glances a quick look to his guards at his sides before moving forward a few paces and waiting outside the shuttle. When the door hisses open he remains where he stands and gazes his four eyes on the Asari. When he gets a clear view he suppresses a sneer, these Asari are just replicants of the humans, and he can tell just by looking at them that his species would, could dominate them if not for the humans. With a suppressed sigh at not being able to solve this with big guns he says, "Asari, welcome to the New Prothean Empire vessel Dominator."

The Asari who is carrying some flowers smiles before saying, "I am most grateful to be here. Please allow me to introduce my fellow companions, this man here,..." She gestures to an aged Turian who has served most his life as a diplomat once he served his six years in the Turian navy. "...Is Ambassador Folarian of the Turian Hierarchy," The Turian thumps his chests right side while saying, "I look forward to bringing our people together." Once the Turian said his bit Irissia then gestures to a Salarian on her right, "And this is Ambassador Zaerm of the Salarian Union,"

The Salarian brings his three-fingered hands in front of him in a traditional Salarian greeting and says, "Greetings, I hope we can find grounds for peace and the sharing of knowledge between our societies from these talks."

Before the Prothean can say anything in response Irissia holds out some flowers and says, "Illia Flowers from Thessia, a symbol of peace to my people."

Ital Rmat takes the hint after Irissia holds out the flowers for a moment and takes them. He could feel their importance to the Asari, but he does not care. "A meaningless gesture. Your actions will show your intent. I have been instructed to... talk with you." He hands the flowers to his nearest officer, who in turn moves to hand it off to the lowest ranked person in the room.

Irissia could tell the alien was not the most social of creatures just from his super tight posture. "Then let us talk."

"Yes. Follow me." Irissia blinks in agreement and follows the Prothean with her escort. As they walk through the halls of the ship Ital cannot help but notice how many of the Asari guard are poor warriors, they have allowed themselves to be absorbed by the ship design, especially the younger one.

Ital directed the Asari to a room with a few chairs and a teardrop shaped table, inside the room a few pieces of Prothean art decorate the walls. The room typically would be the captain's mess as Protheans are not known for talking with lesser species and do not have a room designated for talks. "Let me start," Ital says as he takes a seat at the head of the table, "My people do not appreciate your... questionable fleet in our space." It was a laugh to the Prothean to call this a fleet when he thinks of the human ones that patrol their area.

"And when we are assured of your peaceful intentions, we will leave, but let us not ponder the fleets," Florarian says.

"Do not challenge my people, Turian. If we do not resolve this issue here, then we shall flood into your galaxy as the Reapers did." This is a bluff, but the Asari do not need to know this.

"The Reapers?" Asks a younger Asari in the escort.

Ital sighs, "My people were once the rulers of this miserable galaxy, we ruled the stars while you drivelled in your caves with sticks and stones. But all good things come to an end, and the Reapers were nearly our end, as they shall be yours."

"I suspected as much," The younger Asari replies before Irissia could, "Your species just vanished as if overnight, all my evidence points to you being conquered by a far superior force."

"We fought for hundreds of years!" Snarls Ital, "To call it overnight is a great insult to my ancestors."

"Please forgive me!" Begged the Asari with a bowed head.

Ital ignored the Asari and turned to Irissa. "Asari, these are our borders," The Prothean pushes a datapad to her, "Retreat past those lines, and we can continue further, if you remain reluctant, you will leave me no choice but to open hostilities." As he speaks, he gives her a look that lets the Asari know he looks forward to showing them the power and prowess of his people in battle.

Irissia looks at the line the Protheans have drawn as their border, the lines are acceptable, and do not infringe on Council or her member states space. It could be a show of good faith to move there now, plus she doesn't want to start a needless war with a species some 50,000 years older than her own as Goddess knows what technology they could call upon. "We will comply, let me make a call."

The Prothean waited while she instructs the fleet out of Prothean space. "Now could we continue while our fleet falls back?" The Salarian asks, he is impatient, as is the majority of his species.

Ital blinks his top two eyes, "Yes. Our borders are not to be trespassed against at any time. In return, we shall respect your borders."

For now, this is most acceptable, "We will recognise your borders as out of bounds to our people, but I would like to think we could change this one day."

Ital was going to reply, but a message on his personal computer gained his attention, it is from an Enforcer who is no doubt watching this interaction. "We expect nothing less, Asari. For now, I can welcome a small diplomatic vessel of yours to Prothean Exclusive Space; there are people who are wishing to talk with you. The Little Bird will do, she has a QEC."

Irissia does not want to think how the Prothean knows The Little Bird has a QEC onboard, so she says, "We welcome your offer and gratefully accept."

The Salarian quickly adds, "So we may prepare adequately, who are we to meet?"

"People beyond your comprehension. You can leave now, and we will escort you through the human relay soon."

/.../

Back on their shuttle Irissa turns to Liara, "Maiden, did you need speak your thoughts?" She asks hotly while emphasising 'maiden' to inform Liara of just how angered she is.

Liara blinks in return, "We have learned more about the demise of the Protheans from my single questions than a few thousand years of studying the ruins have ever revealed."

Irissa sighs heavily, "I know this must be your ultimate dream, speaking with a live Prothean, but please, this is a delicate situation. Already one of your questions hit a sensitive spot; we do not need any other potential issues."

"I am sorry Matriarch; I will hold my tongue from now on."

Irissia smiles, "You are the child of Benezzia," 'And Athetya' she adds silently to keep the young maidens true heritage secret, "No, you will not."

/.../

With the Prothean dreadnought escorting them, the ambassadors travel through the human relay before emerging in a small three-planet system. One planet is a gas giant; the other two are garden worlds. The Prothean vessel directs them to the second planet from the sun.

Meanwhile, as they approach Irissia hears a crewman manning visual sensors say, "Oh Goddess!"

"Yes?" The Matriarch asks, expecting the Maiden to share what has her startled.

"Leali Focus in on 082445,126900,105503." Soon the view screen is showing an enormous angular station in orbit around the world they are heading to, the station's colours are grey, with a purple stripe running down its middle, which unbeknown to the Asari represent the ships home system. Purple represents New Lilya, the Prothean homeworld. Most Prothean ships do not follow the practice of colouring ones hull to show their home system, but as this was once a human ship, it is an exception. "That thing is over 25km long, widest point 8km, deepest 3km." This juggernaut is an Enforcers battle station from 10,000 years ago, it is manned by a crew of a twenty thousand men, and contains enough forces inside to wage war on a planetary invasion scale. Now, the station is a Prothean hub; they use it as a docking port for ships too large to land on their new homeworld.

Irissia is thankful that she managed not to provoke these aliens now more than ever. "By the Goddess."

"Matriarch, we have landing coordinates. Appears to be in the middle of a city on the surface of the planet." It surprises a lot of them that they are not landing on the station. Most species on first contact would house them on a station above their world before inviting them to the ground. This allowed them to ensure in a safe environment that no contaminants would be brought ground side.

"Prepare a shuttle, and have the ground team join me." Before Irissa leaves the bridge, she turns to the ship's captain, "Captain, we cannot risk a war with people that can construct a ship like that. No matter what happens, do not do anything hostile, peace at all costs."

"I understand," The captain blinks, informing the Ambassador that there will be no rescue.

Landing a short time later the Asari are buzzing to get out the shuttle and find out more of the Protheans, and they are not disappointed, they are greeted by a half dozen Protheans, all armed, who lead them directly to their higher echelons chambers. A room where the Protheans most senior government officials gather.

As they enter the room and look around in awe at its grandiose, they fail to notice the Protheans waiting impatiently. "Let us begin!" The most important Prothean in the room says with slight irritation in his voice, gaining the Asari's attention.

"Yes," Irssia turns to the Prothean in the middle of the room, who is curiously at the lowest point in the room. Unlike the councillors who stand on a podium, this room seems to be in reverse to galaxy norm. The less powerful you are, the higher in the room you are seated. As the Asari are foreign diplomats they are in the centre of the room, at its lowest point and where all eyes can see them. "Let me first say we are..." The Asari stops as the most powerful Prothean holds his hand up in an obvious demand for silence.

"First, I must ask that we remember our ancestors, who allowed our civilisation to continue through their sacrifice." The room enters a moment silence, with the Protheans raising a fist to their chest. After a moment the lead Prothean continues, "Let me be the first to welcome you to our most sacred halls. It is on this ground our ancestors planted our flag, and it is this very spot we have built our new empire around. It is no small honour to stand where you are; only one other species has done so."

"We are honoured to be invited here," The Salarian representative replies respectfully, "We come with the hope of peace between our people, and to establish a mutually beneficial friendship."

There are a few murmurs in the Prothean ranks, to 'hope' as openly as this Salarian is a sign of weakness in Prothean culture. The leading Prothean stomps his foot slightly, silencing the muttering of his people. "In our culture, hope is viewed as pitiful, sacrilege even, we do not need it. As for your desires, we can respect those. In this hostile galaxy, a friend cannot go amiss."

"Hostile galaxy? You have mentioned we are not the first species to stand here, yet all I have encountered so far is your own species, is there a sombre story to be told?" Asks Irissia, hoping to pry some history out of the Protheans.

The Prothean leader looks to the highest level in the room; he looks to a human enforcer who is leant against a marble column. She does not react to his gaze, so he continues, "My people were once great, we spanned the galaxy, we fought, and we conquered all those who stood before us, but alas we encountered vermin that made us fight in the shadows." Unbeknown to the Asari, this is a play on Harbingers words, that the Reapers numbers will blot out the stars.

"Yet here you stand." Tries Irissia.

"Yet here we stand," Repeats the Prothean, proud his species will be able to have a second shot at beating the Reapers. "Ready for the vermin to crawl out of their hiding space, so we can strike them down and have our vengeance."

"You did not defeat your aggressors?"

The Protheans in the room all laugh at this question, "Asari, our empire of trillions was reduced to a mere 3 thousand souls. Our... aggressors considered us conquered and left our galaxy, but enough of this sorrowful story. What would you want our friendship to involve?" The way 'Friendship' was spoken suggests disgust at the idea both cultures could become friends.

"Yes, our friendship. While I do not have the authority to sign documents outside of an initial peace agreement, the people I represent would like to have open borders between our people, trade deals arranged, and maybe for you to join our council."

The Prothean seems to think about it for a small time before saying, "The details can be negotiated, but no Prothean will step foot on your prized citadel to do so."

"Oh?" Asks the Salarian, "May I inquire as to why? Surely it was once a grand Prothean hub?"

This once more got those in the room laughing, "Lizard, you have no idea. The Citadel is... alien even to us. When you meet the humans, I am sure they will tell you what you need to know."

"The Humans?"

"As much as it pains me to say it," The Prothean starts, "The humans are this cycles elder. At this moment in time, we are all their primitives. If they so desired, they could conquer us all and we could do nothing about it."

/.../

After being dismissed from the Grand halls the small group of Asari, Salarian and Turian representatives are directed to a secondary room, in this chamber, they find three figures standing, two of which are Prothean, but the third character is confusing.

"Welcome," One of the Protheans says with an unusual upbeat voice that is a pleasant change from the usual Prothean downbeat drivel. "Salarians, if you would, come with me." The Salarians, not given much choice in the manner follow the Prothean. The Turians are asked to follow the second Prothean, leaving the Asari and the third confusing character.

"Are you...?"

"Asari?" Asks the figure in an older dialect of High Thessian, the dialect is more commonly spoken by respectable Matriarchs of an old bloodline, "Genetically yes, my mother rescued me from Omega when I was but a child."

"From Omega?" Irissia asks for confirmation, "And how did you end up here?"

"My adoptive mother," The Asari begins as she takes a few steps forward, "Found me abandoned, and her species are very protective of the young."

Irissia connects a few of the dots, "Your mother is Human?"

"Yes, and yes, she has visited Omega, the Citadel, Thessia, Palaven, and every other planet your species have set up colony."

"So why are you here now?"

The younger Asari smiles a little, "I asked to be here, and my superiors allowed it." Superiors in this instance is Shepard.

"But you are barely a maiden?"

The Asari nods her head, a human gesture, "Yes, but I am not your standard Asari. Now, I am yet to share my name, so please allow me to introduce myself as River Shepard."

River Shepard sounds very alien to Irissia, but she doesn't dwell on the fact and introduces the Asari in her team. Once introductions are out the way, the young Asari leads them to a door, "Please, this way." The other Asari follow, "Now I understand that the Asari value culture over science and war, so when my counterparts show the Turians what the Protheans are capable of bringing to the battlefield and the Salarians what scientific marvels they have, I will show you some of the things you will find value in."

"Surely," Asks Irissia, "A Prothean would be more adept to this role?"

The Asari shakes her head, "Possibly but I doubt it. Protheans do not find value in the things you do; they are a militaristic species, more so than your Turians, which thrive on asserting one's dominance. Think of them as Krogan who don't fight each other." The Asari leads them out of the building they are in and into a sky car, "But when you know where to look, the Protheans culture can shine."

As they ride in the sky car one of the Asari guards asks another quietly, "Is she?" The other Asari blinks, the pheromones of an Ardat Yakshi is almost impossible to mistake if not masked. Irissia would have brought this up earlier, but she decided that asking the Asari would not be a good idea.

The first monument River takes the group to is the monument of the Ancestors. A statue dedicated to those who fought the Reapers, the statue itself consists of 3 Prothean figures that look frozen in the middle of combat; they have weapons in hand as they shoot over some invisible cover and their feet are consumed in flames. Every one of the immortalised figures is injured and bleeding. "The Protheans call this the Forefathers, it is dedicated to those who died so this colony could exist."

Liara is silently amazed as she takes who knows how many pictures and 3d scans of the statue, "With all Prothean statues, the fire around the feet signifies their world lost, but they fight out of defiance, and their wounds the fact they fought bravely to the end. The three figures represent the three forefathers, the three bloodlines. The one on the left is the Tata bloodline, a historically fierce and primal bloodline that made the brunt of the Prothean armed forces. The middle figure is that of Elder Nauit; these Protheans would provide the empire with the science and technology needed for their wars, and the final figure, represented by Binso, the working class Protheans who fed and provided for the two other bloodlines." This information is enough for Liara to understand dozens upon dozens of Prothean art she has found over the years, the faces of the three figures are ones she recognises from other Prothean artworks.

"Who were they fighting?" Asks Irissia, curious as to who could make a Prothean world fall.

"The Reapers?" Adds Liara

Irissia notes the grim face on the Asari, "Yes, the Protheans call them Reapers, but we do not know their real name. They crushed the Prothean empire 50,000 years prior, and this colony is all that remains."

"50,000 years ago? I wonder why we have found no existence of this species?"

The Asari nods her head in understanding, "The Enforcer will give you more information on the war at hand, but for now I must continue my tour."

"Enforcer?" Asks Irissia.

"One of if not the most powerful entities in this galaxy. They are dedicated to war and the protection of Humanity."

Irissia frowns, "Is it usual for the first contact with humanity to be with an enforcer?"

"Yes." Says River, "If the enforcer determines you are not a threat to her species, you will be able to open talks with her people."

"And if we are considered a threat?"

River shakes her head, "You cannot afford that, but considering how primitive you are to them, it would take a considerable effort to make yourself a threat."

After some further exploration, showing the Asari things they would like to possibly trade in, and know, Irissia and her team are led further out of town. They continue their journey outside the city till they come across a river, on the peaceful river bank at a wooden picnic table sits an odd creature with a red mane, but when it stands and turns to face them, the Asari raise their brows, the creature looks remarkably Asari. When the Asari team are within a few yards the enforcer removes her sunglasses and bows her head in traditional Asari greeting, "Good day," She says when she raises her head out of the bow and puts her glasses back on. "Sit," She then gestures to the chairs opposite her on the table, and the Asari take a seat, all of them feel like they are maidens meeting a powerful Matriarch for one reason or another. River sits comfortably close next to the Enforcer.

As they sit, Irissia says, "You are a human, correct?"

"A symbiont," Corrects Shepard, "'Human' refers to the biological part of my entity, and humanity is our entire species as a whole." If you called a symbiont a human, most 'Humans' would accept it without pause. Shepard is only nitpicking because it is a technicality that the Asari need to know.

Irissia frowns, "I do not understand,"

Shepard leans forward slightly in her chair and rests her arms on the table; her fingers are intertwined with one another. "I am part AI," She watches the Asari become stiffer than a plank of wood, which was expected, "Part biological, as is the rest of my species. We are symbiont with AI."

"How does that work?" Asks Liara, genuinely curious.

Shepard untwines her fingers from one another and raises an open hand; some nanobots make their way to the surface of her palm, casting it a dark shade of grey, the grey then begins to dance around her fingers. "I have billions of nano-bots flowing through my blood, the nano-bots collectively form an AI, and I interact with the AI up here." She taps her right temple. "We are one."

"This will disturb my people." Irissia reluctantly tells the human.

Shepard nods, "Yes, they will also dislike the fact I personally cured the Genophage and have saved the Rachni from extinction. But this does not matter in the grand scheme of things."

"That was you?" Asks Irissia almost hotly. "And the Rachni?"

"Yes, your people are going to need the Krogan more than you can imagine soon. We need them in fighting condition. As for the Rachni, we are keeping them in line; we simply dislike sapient species going extinct."

"For the Reapers?" Asks Liara when Shepard finishes speaking, and Shepard blinks to her.

"Yes. The Reapers are but on the doorstep, ready to knock. Already we have been fighting the war against them in the shadows, I have terminated numerous of their agents in your space, and disrupted their Nazzara's operations. I've delayed their arrival as long as possible. I let you find the Protheans because it is only a matter of years now till the Reapers invade."

"Why didn't you warn us sooner? We could have prepared better."

Shepard smiles in response to the Ambassadors uninformed request, "Let children be children, and had we revealed ourselves the Reapers would have arrived far earlier than they have. By curing the Krogan I have prepared you the best I could. The Krogan have some of their numbers back, and you have increased your fleet sizes along with active military personnel in case they try anything."

Irissia rubs her forehead, the Protheans said the humans were advanced, and curing the genophage is some evidence, but she is curious as to how advanced. "It takes an advanced species to cure the genophage."

Shepard laughs audibly, " It took us less than an hour to cure the thing and any possible variance you could come up with." Shepard raises her second hand to be on the same level as her first, "This is advanced," A dark bloodish red string-like entity forms between both her hands, moving and flashing as if it has a conscious of its own. "You are the first of your species to bear witness to pure energy." It took 40,000 years for Humanity to crack this feat, and it still bamboozles the egg heads as to exactly how they did it. Really, they stumbled across this discovery by accident.

"You can manipulate pure energy? Amazing, we don't even have theories on this."

"Give it another 40,000 years, and then you will crack it." Shepard smiles before allowing the energy to fade. If she didn't let it fade correctly, then the pure energy would turn incredibly volatile, and nothing good happens when that occurs. "But alas to say, you do not want to make an enemy of us."

"We wish no such thing," Irissia tells Shepard.

"No, you want no such thing." Shepard responds, "But council doctrine would have your people declare us a galactic threat, just as you have done with the Geth,"

"The Geth..."

Shepard holds her hand up in an obvious requirement for Irissia to stop talking, "Do not bullshit me, Irissia, I have lived longer than your council has existed and watched as your civilisation has grown into the entity it is today. The Geth have not left their small corner of space since the morning war. While I can agree that you should have precautions in place, your people declared a genocide on them for just being AI."

"The Quarians..."

"Don't. Bullshit. Me. The Quarians attacked a sentient species and said species fought for its survival. Your council have not even sent a peacekeeping mission to determine the true nature of the war and listened only to the Quarian people. If we were not preparing for the Reapers onslaught, I would have intervened in the war. Then don't get me started with your treatment of the Quarians."

It took the Protheans a considerable time to learn that bullshitting humanity got them nowhere. Every time they tried it Shepard would punish them somehow, usually by publicly embarrassing the top brass who tried to lie or deceive her.

"That is a bold claim."

"Yes," Shepard responds as she takes a sip from some drink, and guessing from the smell, Irissia knows it must be alcoholic. "But as no other species, or body, is willing to be the party for good, it falls to us. Now," Shepard takes another sip of her beer. While it would seem most unprofessional for the first contact to be held over a beer, Shepard has done it on purpose to give a clear indication that this is a trivial if not unimportant event to Humanity. "I need to determine if it is safe to let our people interact."

"I must reiterate, we have no quarrel with your people, and only want to live in peace with you."

"You believe that," Shepard agrees, "But I do not yet think your council do." Shepard's enhancements allow her to read Irissia's vitals and determine if she speaks the truth or not.

"Then show us why we are wrong about your people."

Shepard thinks for a moment before nodding, "I will give you a chance." Shepard herself will meet this council and take it from there. "Now, from history, I am under the impression you will have been given instructions to invite a diplomatic party to meet with your esteemed Council, yes?"

"Then you know what I am to offer."

"Yes, then you will take me," Shepard pauses for a moment and gives her adoptive daughter a quick glance, ", and River."

"Just the two of you? No guard?" This is unusual; most diplomatic parties take a small guard at least.

River smiles a little as she says, "An Enforcer is an army of their own." She is smiling because she has always wanted to visit the Citadel and see others of her own kind.

"When you meet with your comrades, the Protheans will ask you to leave their system, and it would be wise for us to do as asked promptly. They are quite the territorial bunch, and they have a nasty bite to go with their bark." Shepard stands, shortly followed by the others sat around the table, "River, you can continue as planned. Diplomats, good day."

"How may we contact you?" Asks Irissia.

Shepard's response does not surprise Irissia, "I will contact you."

/.../

To say meeting the Turian and Salarian diplomats was an interesting experience would be a slight lie, the Salarians began to rattle off theories as to why the Enforcer looks so like an Asari, ranging from genetic engineering to look more like the Asari and even shared ancestry. The Turian diplomat meanwhile was bristling and testing of the Enforcer, trying anything he could to get her to reveal information on humanities war assets.

And here she is now, sitting in their own shuttle, small rucksack between her feet and a Lancer Direct Energy Weapon (LDEW or DEW for short) collapsed around her neck. Next to her sits River, who looks far more excited than the enforcer.

Arriving on the diplomat's vessel the aliens scan Shepard's and Rivers bags and bodies for weapons, but they do not really know what to look for when it comes to the Enforcer, and Shepard smuggles through her Lancer weapon without issue. As the saying goes, no enforcer is ever without their Lancer, the weapon is a directed energy weapon, capable of delivering huge devastation. Like her shields, it is powered by a facility on Earth; the power required for the device is transferred to the weapon wirelessly. The Lancer is every Enforcer's primary ground assault weapon, it could deliver the energy of an old gun powder bullet or the equivalent energy of a Turian dreadnoughts main cannon. The only limiting factor of its energy output is how much energy the Enforcer can be near when it goes bang.

/.../

As Irissia is the head of the diplomatic team that was sent to establish contact with the Protheans, it is her job to report to the Council of her progress. "Councillors," Her holographic form starts after the Matriarch bows her head in respect, "I come bearing news of my exploits past Relay 1071."

"Ah yes," The Salarian says, "I have been impatient for an update, please, tell us of what you have learned."

"Well," Irissia starts, "We have met two new species, one officially, the other not so officially. One is Prothean, the same Protheans whose mass effect designs we still use to power our ships, and the other, Humanity, which is a disturbing species."

"Disturbing?" Tevos latches onto the word, "Please expand your explanation."

"The species is advanced, possibly a level 5 on the Incria scale."

"Impossible," The Salairan Councillor says, "A level 5 civilisation is theoretical at best."

"I wished it was true," Irissia replies, knowing that her species are no longer the most advanced, "But I have seen them manipulate pure energy. Their enforcer held it in her hands like it was a play toy."

"Enforcer?" Asks the Turian representative, the word 'enforcer' is an interesting one for him. The Salarian latches onto the word

"Best to think of one as a Spectre with the power to control humanities military. If we fail to impress her and ensure her of our intentions, Humanity will not engage with us. There is two more thing you need to know about them."

"Yes, please." The Salarian replies.

Irissia prepares herself for the revelation before saying, "Firstly they are neither biological nor AI, but a synthesis of the two." Irissia notices her superiors become stiff, "Secondly, they would seemingly know everything about us. Their enforcer claims to have walked the streets of each of our homeworlds; she claims to have fixed the genophage and saved a Rachni colony. There is another issue, but I believe it is best for it to be spoken in person, to ensure utter privacy."

"Have you seen any evidence to prove their claims?" The Turian is sceptical.

"No, however, the enforcer has saved an Asari and reared her from young. She claims the Asari of unfortunate fate came from Omega." The use of 'unfortunate fate' discretely tells Tevos the Asari is an Ardat Yakshi.

"I understand," Tevos blinks, "Thank you for this update. Please expect heavier than typical security for our human guests upon your arrival. Is there any more you can tell us about the Protheans?"

"If I may," Irissia tries, "We do not want to risk angering this Enforcer. As for the Protheans, there is a sensitive subject of which I can not speak freely. They are a militaristic race only held in check from my educated guesses by Humanity. They thrive on conquest, and it dominates their culture. Currently, they are more advanced than any other species in Citadel space, possibly level 4, and they like to remind us of it."

"I see." The Turian says slowly, "What do you judge their military capabilities to be?" Trust the Turian to ask this question.

"Septimus believes they alone could challenge many of our species, but they lack the numbers to launch ground invasions."

"And Humanity?"

Irissia shakes her head, "I have only met one of their enforcers."

The three councillors look among one another before nodding, "We understand. Please keep your guests entertained till we can officially greet them." The Councillors look like they were about to terminate the call but Tevos adds, "And well done for ensuring peaceful contact Irissia." After ending the call the Councillors go over the full reports uploaded by the various diplomats on what they have seen. The reports contain more information that Irissia omitted for various reasons.

/.../

Councillor Tevos pinches the bridge of her nose; the news ambassador Irissia brings is causing a headache to brew in her skull. The news of live Protheans alone is enough to cause chaos, but a species that is supposedly advanced enough to manipulate pure energy? This is something out of science fiction. Then there is the fact they are one with AI and seemingly distrustful of her governing body. Then there is the fact they have built relays.

"Thoughts?" She asks the others in the room. It has been 4 hours since the call with the diplomat.

"Where to start?" Asks the Salarian in fast speech, "Level 5 on the Incria scale? I do not even know how to approach this. Constructed relays? Pure energy? The synthesis of both AI and biological? All fascinating."

"Please," The Turian in the room says, "Keep your sadistic fantasies of observing their technology, and dissection to yourself." He then takes a sigh, the Turian representative to the public is a man of steel, unwavering and tight mandibled, but to his fellow councillors, he is quite expressive. "But I am worried about everything in this report. If they are level 5 on the Incria scale, a war between our people would be short-lived. We should tread carefully."

Every new race is rated on the Incria scale, races who are yet to discover space flight, no matter their current technological stage are rated at 0. Level 1 is for civilisations that have space flight, but are yet to conquer the relays, these species are carefully watched, with contact being made when appropriate.

Level 2 is a species that have conquered the relay and only possess a few colonies. These species have limited military assets and are no threat to the Citadel alliance. A level 3 society is what most Citadel species themselves are, including the Asari, Turians and Salarians. This society is a powerful one with significant assets, one of these societies could stand against the council for a considerable time, if not challenge it outright.

A level 4 could conquer the Citadel with a significant struggle, they would be entirely self-dependent and have a greater economy then the known galaxy, they may even have the ability to build relays.

The relays no longer bind a level 5 species; they possess forces beyond comprehension, any contact with this race must be peaceful for war would be a slaughter. For the good of the galaxy, no one ever wants to come across a level 5 society as this is just bad news all around.

Tevos reluctantly blinks, "Yes, I concur, but the fact they are part AI, it unsteadies me."

The Salarian is the least disturbed, "These people are not the Geth, and if the report is true, they have walked among our people for possibly centuries with little issue. If they have also saved the Rachni, and allow the Protheans great freedoms, I do not believe they would want to conquer us." The Salarian takes a drink of what looks like muddy water, and in practice, it is, just the mud is selected for its various mineral and organic contents.

/.../

Shepard is sitting on a comfy cushion on the floor while looking out over the vastness of space, but she is not really in the room, in her mind, she is issuing orders to the numerous fleets under her control. Irissia slowly approaches the scary human and clears her throat when she is but a few steps away.

"So," Shepard asks the Asari as she continues to 'look' out the window, "Are you here to meld?"

Irissia is only surprised for a second that Shepard already knew of her intentions, "Yes, it is standard practice that we meld with the diplomat of a new species. By allowing..."

Shepard does not need to hear the Asari's justification for the act. "I accept." She cuts her short before turning in her chair to look at her. "Meld away, but I will warn you, it will be confusing for you."

"We will see." Irissia replies as she grabs a cushion for herself and sits down opposite Shepard in the Little Bird's observation room. Placing her hands on the human's head, she says, "Thank you for accepting this," Before uttering the three famous words.

The moment Irissia enters Shepard's mind she is confused, thoughts fly past her at an unnatural speed that makes it impossible for her to keep up, and it feels like she is connected to two different minds. She tries to manoeuvre her way around the Enforcers mind, but ultimately, she fails to connect as the two individual minds think at incompatible speeds. Irissia has melded with Salarians many times, and she believes they are fast thinkers, but this is beyond anything she expected.

"That." Shepard starts when Irissia exits the meld, "Is the result of 50,000 years of living with AI in our brains and genetic engineering. Our speed of thought is well above your own, and you cannot meld successfully without extensive training." A standard human does not think quite as fast as a genetically engineered Enforcer, but it is still well beyond a Salarian.

/.../

The Trip for Shepard was quite boring, the Asari vessel compared to Humanities crafts is incredibly slow, and the facilities are lacking. For River, however, it has been interesting to interact with others of her own kind and has managed to establish a friendship with the second youngest on the ship. But both are relieved when they dock at the Citadel. "Got everything?" Shepard asks her adoptive daughter before they meet with the other diplomats to walk onto the citadel.

After River nods to her mother the airlock opens with a 'hiss' and the citadel is revealed to them, but Shepard is not surprised by what she sees. She has been here numerous, maybe hundred times before after all. The moment Shepard takes a step off the ramp she is almost blinded by the flashing of lights of photographers, but thankfully a genetic modification has her conjunctiva, the thin layer of cells on top of her eye, dim, filtering out the flashing lights. This modification helps the Enforcer overcome flash grenades and other explosions from hindering her sight in the heat of combat. Shepard walks down the ship's ramp with the other diplomats till she comes face to face with the big three. "Councillors," She greets with a stern voice. "It's time we talk." River stands back, for now, after all, she is not of interest to the Councillors.

Tevos raises an eyebrow marking while Sparatus says, "To the point, I like that. Welcome to the citadel, I am under the impression we do not need to introduce ourselves?"

"No, Councillor Sparatus," Shepard says, "I know all about you three and your deeds. "

Tevos swallows a little before saying, "Then let us move this to a private scene, where prying eyes are kept at bay."

Shepard nods once before following the councillors. As she follows she notices the heavy build-up of security, this does not surprise her, nor does the fact the build-up is more substantial than regular first contact surprise her.

Getting into a private room away from the public Shepard takes a seat before either councillor can because she is going to lead this meeting. The councillors do not mind too much, however, as it is good for future relations to allow a new species to take things at their own pace. "So," Shepard states when she is comfy, "First of all, you are worried about me being an AI, don't be, we could have eliminated you thousands of years ago when you still fought with sticks if we wanted to do that." Shepard knows that this is unlikely to pacify them, but she doesn't care because if anything she is trying to provoke them to show their true colours.

This is just the first bombshell Shepard is to drop. "But I don't care about that. What I care about is if I should even let you speak to my people. You are a corrupt political body that in all honesty disgusts my people. You break your own laws and allow people who enslave and god knows what else to participate in your collective. Christ, they even enslave your own people! Then, for good measure, you have committed genocide twice!" Shepard takes a small pause as she lets them know Humanity is not happy with them.

"But!" She continues after a moment, "The war that is but a moment away requires a stable galaxy to have any hopes."

"War?" Asks the Turian, he is still revelling from the Enforcers onslaught. "We are experienced in such arts."

"Yes." Shepard clicks her fingers and waits patiently for an Asari to scurry in the room, after a second of quiet whispering Shepard watches the Turians face break into a face of horror. "Tell me, Councillor, what does your art of war dictate right now?"

Outside the Citadel 100 ships 100km long, and 80 ships 80km long are surrounding the citadel, they are Humanities pillars of conquest. The Turian flares his mandibles before saying, "Your attempts to intimidate me will fail." The Turian does not know what else to say, this human has just spawned 180 ships that are well above dreadnought class, to the point they are larger than the citadel.

"Ah yes," Shepard says, she is still far too relaxed for the Councillors liking, "The triumphant Higherarchy will try and put us down I suppose. Get real, Sparatus. My species would crush the Citadel in less than a second if we wished." Shepard then clicks her fingers again, and the warships vanish. "Let me make this clear, my people do not want a war, but we will not allow you to be hostile towards us for what we are."

'So,' Tevos muses silently to herself, 'This is what her show is about.' When the Asari aid told her of the warships in orbit, she honestly didn't know how to react.

After a moment to sip some beer Shepard spawned into the room Shepard goes on, "Now, you know what I can deliver, I trust you will treat my people's diplomat as you would me." Shepard clicks her fingers again and Donnel Udina flashes into existence next to her.

"My humble greetings, Enforcer," Udina says respectfully with his hands together in front of him as he watches a few Citadel guards approach, "I trust you have pacified their hostilities towards our nature?"

Shepard nods as she gestures to a chair for the man to sit in, "They know their place." She tells him as he sits.

"Excellent!" Udina says with a sly knowing smirk.

 **Cheers for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**First of all, before we get into it, all I can say is WOW, did not expect such a strong positive response for the previous chapter, and I won't lie, it made me work on this in the very rare free time I have despite originally just doing the previous chapter as a 'what would I do' project. Anyway, I will respond to reviews, I was going to do it like my other stories just below a quick AN but I'll do it in a private message over the coming days as there are just so many (Not that im complaining). Thanks a lot all!**

River, who is waiting patiently outside the Councils chambers, closes her eyes momentarily to protect them from the harsh white light created when her adoptive mother flashes into existence next to her. "Everything going to plan?" River asks aloud in human; the Asari knows most of the galaxies dominant languages due to Shepard's insistence she learns.

"Yes." Shepard nods while looking around at the startled Citadel security around her, none of it worries her, she is just curious as to what has come out to put her down if she should turn hostile. "Anyway, I'm under the impression we are allowed to take a stroll, so shall we?" It is not a request.

"Are you not going to activate your disguise?" River asks with a raised brow, a human gesture.

Typically, Shepard would activate her Asari disguise so she could go incognito, but today she is here to show her true nature, not hide it. "No, they need to see me for what I am, so no more games."

"Is that for the Reapers or this galaxies people?" Asks River, her question is genuine as everything her mother seems to do these days is preparation for the Reaper onslaught.

Shepards tour of the citadel for River visited various places that not even the security detail know about, but this should surprise no one, Shepard has walked every known hallway on the Citadel and lived through its Galactic Council history, other than the Catalyst, no other sentient being knows more of the citadel.

Just as Shepard is about to sit at a favourite restaurant of hers, she hears a "You!" Hollered towards her from a familiar voice, and turning she finds Wrex approaching her, a mischevious glint adopted on his face.

"Wrex, you old bag of bones." She replies with her own shout, "Come to join the party?"

The Krogan continues to stride towards the Enforcer with purpose, his footsteps seem to cause the floor to yield and bend under his enormous weight. People move out of his way long before he arrives in fear that he would crush them. "Any Ryncol?" Wrex asks since it's not a party without the galaxies most pungent, corrosive and brain cell killing drink after all.

"I'm sure we can find something to your liking somewhere."

The battle-scarred Krogan grumbles in thought as he comes to a stop a few paces from Shepard, the one-time warlord then looks to River who seems to cower a little at his sheer size, but the Krogan pays her no heed. "That was a hell of a show you pulled earlier, with all those ships, would have loved to have seen their faces for my self."

Shepard nods as a small smirk makes its way across her face, "I'm sure a video will be making its way around the extranet sooner or later."

"Heh heh heh," The Krogan chuckles, his deep voice resonating in Shepard's chest, Wrex will be sure to find and save that video for his own amusement on a rainy day. "So, I take it if you're here, we don't have long?" Shepard over her years helping the Krogan has revealed more and more about the war that is to come so the Krogan can better prepare his people.

"No." Shepard shakes her head, "Long range sensors are saying 462 days till arrival. I've delayed it as long as I could."

Typically, any true Krogan would be thrilled with the prospect of a life or death fight, with everything on the line, but Wrex is under no false illusions. "Well, I re-iterate the Krogan are ready to do our bit. Now, less Reaper talk, let's find a bar, I know of a one not far from here, know the bartender too heh."

Before Shepard can respond River buts in, showing her ability to articulate Krogan, which is no easy feat for Asari due to the deep tones needed. "Excuse me, Urdnot Wrex, but we were about to sit down for a meal. You may join us if you wish, however."

The Krogan is a little surprised at the young Asari, most Asari less than a thousand years of age do not care to learn his people's tongue since most view it as a waste of time for a supposedly dying people, and even less would dare challenge him in such a way. After a moment to eye the young Asari Wrex grunts, "Not many tell me as it is these days kid, they see the scars and turn tail. Makes a nice change." The fact River is also sat comfortably close to the most dangerous entity Wrex knows of also helps her cause. Wrex temporarily leaves the table to look around for a Krogan rated chair before returning to the table, and when he returns, he has somehow managed to find a bottle of Ryncol, which in all likelihood was hiding somewhere on his armour.

/.../

"Ha!" Wrex bellows as much as he chuckles, "So you fell for the good ole 'One for the road'. Happens to the best of us if I was honest. Whatever happened to the kid?"

Shepard sighs, wondering why she is telling the old Krogan some of her stories over the years, "Had another kid who in turn had another. The latest is what we humans call an explorer, shooting off to Andromeda and all."

"Didn't want to get involved with 'em eh?"

Shepard shakes her head, "How could I? Couldn't exactly live an entire life as a fake Asari, and what would unveiling myself as some sort of human warlord do to the kid? No, I couldn't do that, and out of curiosity, you make it sound like the same thing has happened to you." Shepard already knows it has, she researched Urdnot Wrex thoroughly before approaching him with a solution to his people's problems.

"It did." The Krogan nods, "One found out I was THE Urdnot Wrex of Tachunka, the one who killed a maw single-handedly in my right of passage, and well the next thing I know..."

Shepard holds her finger up in a request for a moment as she hears Udina request for her presence, "Sorry big man," She then says, "The powers call."

"Yeah." Grumbles the hardy Krogan, "Even an entity like you must have someone pulling your strings. Go do whatever you need to do, and have fun doing it or it's not worth doing."

With a nod Shepard stands from her chair and then flashes into existence next to Udina, gone is her more relaxed demeanour, and in its place is the Enforcers stoic face. River meanwhile returns to the Enforcers Pillar of Conquest. "Ambassador Udina?" Shepard asks, inquiring for more information as to why her presence is required.

The Ambassador turns to her, the man does not like her style, but he puts up with her as she is an Enforcer, and only the most senior ranks of Government can oust her, not that anyone would attempt to do so, it would put the entire war effort in chaos. "Greetings Enforcer, I have agreed to give these representatives a tour of Eden 1, sufficient presence is required." There are ambassadors from every race present.

Shepard raises a brow at the terminology used before nodding, "I assume we will be skipping customs?"

"In its entirety."

Shepard nods, typical of government figures to want to skip customs. "Then where do you want us?"

The man takes a second before saying, "I think we will begin on the plaza of Socrates hall."

At the choice of location Shepard rolls her eyes discretely before nodding and making the arrangements mentally to transport the group of 20 to the desired location. "Whenever you are ready, Ambassador."

As the man nods Shepard transports the group to Socrates plaza, a location on Eden-1 where a mega halo structure can be viewed. Within seconds the predictable comment was made, "Makers!"

"No." Udina replies as he smirks, happy with the Volus's response, "Humanity. Our Enforcer may have painted us as warriors, and the Protheans may insist we contain nothing but the blood of warriors, however, our hearts are that of engineers. We have for the past tens of thousands of years built mega structures you can only dream of, and developed technologies some would believe is magic. We find the sense of achievement when building the impossible."

A turian slowly flares his mandibles, which is the equivalent of a human nod. "If this is not an illusion, I can only apologise for doubting your capabilities. "

The Halo is gargantuan, a military fortress of unimaginable proportions, coming in with a circumference of 3,000,000km the halo rivals the Larry Nivens Ringworld discovered in galaxy Hubble 0x18F. The mega structure was created over 15,000 years, with its secondary function to house the humans growing population. The halo's primary function is to provide a place of safe refuge for Humanity. The system the ring calls home is the same system with New Sahara, the solar system is considered impenetrable, with a bare minimum of 15,000 warships battle class and above calling it home at any one time. In addition to all the warships, there are countless defensive satellites that pollute the space. If all other human systems fall, this one solar system is designed to house the military and industrial might of a half dozen other human systems. Very few other locations in the known cosmos are so well defended.

 **1 week later**

It is a quiet day in the citadel traffic control tower, but that is not to say it has not been an interesting week for specialist Tuik, after all he was the one to detect the warships that appeared from nowhere to surround their Citadel. Mulling over his console Tuik spots yet another signal of interest, this time, however, it originates from a known species, and a hostile one at that. "Commander," He quickly calls out, "Sensors have identified a Geth ship on approach, readings suggest a frigate."

The fact Geth have shown, no matter their intentions or fleet strength is enough for the protocol to dictate the Citadel's arms are closed and its defensive fleet is mobilised to greet the threat head-on.

The commanding officer of the Traffic control tower immediately scrutinises the data on Tuiks console to verify the threat before making the appropriate calls, and then with the citadel reacting, he studies the situation in further depth.

The Geth vessel, now identified as a frigate due to power displacement and mass, is acting outside the expected behaviour of Geth. It is not opening fire without cause, but instead, it is broadcasting an unusual signal that his systems can not make heads or tails of. The commanding officer was about to make another call for the signal to be studied, but another entity formed on the traffic controllers screen, this time the entity was far larger than a simple frigate.

/.../

Shepard sighs as she dries her hair, she can never seem to get a moment to herself these days, not even the time for a prolonged shower. Sensors had indicated the Geth had arrived at the Citadel, and knowing the Council, Shepard decided to act before any shots could be made, from either side. "Indomitable," Shepard calls to her ships AI, "Have you analysed the signal?"

"Affirmative, ma'am. The signal is consistent with artificial thought patterns."

Shepard raises a brow, "They are broadcasting their thoughts?" This is the first instance Shepard has seen the Geth try to initiate communications, so their method of doing so is new to her.

"I believe they are broadcasting their wish to talk, however, they are only doing so in a way which artificial intelligence will understand."

"I see," Shepard muses as she pulls some clothes on in a hurry, knowing that the Citadel is not going to be happy with either a Geth vessel or her flagship, a customised Pillar of Conquest, suddenly showing in their space and at the heart of their society at that. "Take us to the edge of the system, see if the Geth ship follows."

This act has three purposes behind it; the first is to see if the Geth are here to talk with herself as they will follow if this is the case, the second is to put some distance between the Indomitable and the Citadel Council, and the third is to buy Shepard time to dress. Soon enough, the Indomitable is hanging on the system edge with a tiny Geth frigate in its shadow, the Geth frigate is so small in comparison to the indomitable that one would be easily mistaken to thinking it to be something far more modest than a frigate if seen from afar.

God knows, Shepard wonders, what the Council must think of the Indomitable, the ship measures 120km from stern to bow, and 160km from port to starboard, unlike most human vessels that are prism-shaped, her flagship is fashioned like an old b2 bomber. The ship differs from most Human mega structures due to the fact its sole purpose is offence, rather than defence. The Indomitable is blessed with numerous weapons, many are deemed illegal in human space, and thus the warship is actually prohibited from entering human territories unless in dire need. Specially built space stations in dark space were required to create it, and many others are needed to maintain it.

When fully clothed Shepard asks, "Are the Geth still broadcasting?"

The Indomitable AI confirms they are, so the Enforcer transports herself into what would be considered the Geths hanger bay, from here, Shepard allows her AI entity to take the lead. The Enforcers nano-bots transmit the following in EM emissions the second Shepard arrives onboard, 073 102 032 121 111 117 032 109 097 110 097 103 101 100 032 116 111 032 099 111 110 118 101 114 116 032 116 104 105 115 044 032 104 097 116 115 032 111 102 102 032 116 111 032 121 111 117.

The Geth quickly respond in their own manner, and soon, Shepards artificial entity is interacting with the Geth. Shepard's biological part, feeling rather useless in the entire conversations decided to take to sitting on the floor with her back resting against the wall, and soon, her eyes slowly closed. With her artifical presence being focussed on the Geth, she could not do anything else she would like, so sleep seemed like the logical thing to try, but sleep would also provide her shelter from the discomfort of being temporarily distanced from her artificial presence as it engaged with Geth Hardware. If she had to compare the feeling of being separated from her AI entity, she would compare it to a limb and brain being amputated, it is most unpleasant for both her entities, biological and artificial.

34 minutes later Shepard sits upright as her artificial presence rejoins her biological presence, and soon she is up to date on everything that has gone on, and a lot has happened. Her artificial presence has managed to convince the Geth to come to the table with the citadel council, however, the Council will not let a Geth onto a Council vessel, and the Geth are reluctant to let the Council into their own vessels. The bad blood between the two stinks, so Shepard needs to come up with a solution.

128 hours later on the HPC Indomitable Shepard looks around a circular table of two dozen high-rank politicians from the 11 council associated species, and Tachunka, they may have no direct swing over the citadel council, but on their own homeworld, these people are respected and influential entities. These people, in Shepard's mind, hold the power to begin the talks between the Geth and the Council. None of the politicians really know why they are here, all they know is that the Human Enforcer asked for them, so they showed their face, each had their own reason for showing up to the meeting, ranging from hopes of furthering their careers to mere curiosity. Wrex, on the other hand, does know the meaning behind the meeting, and he is most impatient to see how these meat bags are going to squirm when they learn why they have been summoned.

"Greetings," Shepard starts, she wanted to say good morning, but that is irrelevant in space, especially when the council worlds have not yet set a standard space-time among themselves, something she still finds hard to believe, "I've asked you here for help."

"Help?" Interrupts a Salarain with a small splutter, wondering out loud how they could help a super advanced race.

Shepard raises a brow, but Wrex speaks for her, "If you kept your trap shut you would have found out by now, slime back."

The Salarian was going to quip back some sort of response to the insult but Shepard continues, "For too long now in this galaxy there has been an entity that has been exiled to a small corner of space, I want to help resolve this issue and I think you can help me."

"The Geth." The quick-thinking Salarian said.

Shepard nods, "Yes. I want the council to ally with them."

"Improbable, too many laws prevent such a thing." Because of who Shepard invited to the Indomitable, the people in attendance like to listen to ideas before shooting things down from the get-go, but this does not mean they will not quickly list the problems.

"And all you here are going to make it probable. Legion, come in, please." The Geth unit walks into the room and Wrex chuckles as he watches the various politicians become stiff and awkward. "People, this is Legion, a representative of the Geth."

The Geth unit blinks its white sensory light before saying, "The Geth wish for the hostilities to end among our bodies."

After a moment of astonished silence, an Asari asks, "And how do you propose we do that?" The Question is more so directed towards Shepard then Legion.

Shepard looks among those in the room before saying, "Humanity will give your species each a garden world, on the terms and conditions you work alongside the Geth to establish colonies. When that happens, and you're working together, hopefully then you will come to understand one another and true peace talks can begin." Shepard knew it would be foolish to try and talk peace straight away, with the hostilities and fear between the two, this will have to be built up slowly. "And trust me when I say this, there will be advantages, sometimes lucrative, sometimes technological, for accepting this." There is also the unstated fact that if the Reapers prove to be too powerful, these worlds will act as Arcs for the respective species while Humanity slogs it out with their arch nemesis.

"You understand," The salarian from earlier begins, "That by doing this, you are actively giving the Geth access to worlds, breaking dozens of Council laws in the process. It may even end all diplomatic channels between our societies."

Shepard nods, she knows this to be the case, "The Council could not afford to break diplomatic links with us if we were seen to be working with the Geth. Our economy and technological prowess is too far ahead for them to ignore us as they would a sub-member of the council. No, the most they can do is grumble."

"These garden worlds you speak of," A Salarian pipes up, changing the topic from the council, "Will they come with full rights to the system?"

"No," Shepard replies honestly, she knows lies now would only lead to unneeded issues further down the line. "But, I can assure you that unless you try to undermine Humanities security, the colonies security or the end goal of the colony, that being the future alliance between Geth and Council, we will allow you to do as you wish in the systems."

The table goes silent for a moment before Wrex speaks up, "Well, Tachunka has nothing to lose, where do I sign up?"

Shortly, with no other species enjoying the possibility of the Krogan getting access to Humanities technology by participating in this scheme, and them being left behind by not participating, the other species begrudgingly signed up to work with the Geth. It is a small victory for Shepard, but hopefully the start of something big.

/.../

 **3 days later**

With a nod from a top ranked CSEC security officer Tevos sits at the table, confident that the room is clean of bugs or any other technology that can relay sound. "Shall we begin?" She asks her fellow councillors.

"Yes, much to say, little time. Start small, build big. STG analysis of the 'Enforcer' has revealed that the entity is the same as the mysterious 'Enforcer' aiding the Krogan prior contact. "

The Turian representative gives a turian sigh; he knew today was going to have many truths he dislikes the idea of. "Are we certain?"

"Yes. The human enforcer shares 98.7% of the unknown Asari's mannerisms and has been seen interacting with Urdnot Wrex in an identical manner as the unknown Asari. We are confident that the two entities are one in the same."

"Mannerisms being? I need to tell the Primarch more than simple words for any actions to be done back home."

It is the Salarians turn to sigh, "When you cross your arms you do so in a certain way, your movements and method of crossing arms is unique to you. The same can be said for the way you sigh, walk, blink, breath, all of it is unique, Enforcer Shepard and the mysterious Asari share 98.7% of these mannerisms. Typically, between even identical Asari twins, this is no higher than 64.89% The STG is confident the two entities are the same."

Tevos knows the Salarian could talk for hours on this, so decides to move the conversation along, "Asari delegates have also returned with disturbing news from within Human space. They have confirmed Humanity does not use relays and have given an estimate of their industry output capability."

"Yes, not good news."

Tevos blinks, agreeing with the Salarian, "Simply put, our people sent to their space have zero faith that we could out manufacture the Humans. Their technological advancements simply make them untouchable in this playing field. If Humanity entered a trade war with ourselves, or decided to flood our markets with their technology, our economy would collapse before we even knew there was an issue. The good news, however, is they do not seem to desire this course of action."

"No." The Salarian adds, "Our deployed agents are more concerned with humanities desire for war with the Reapers. 50.01% of human GDP is for war assets and has been so for the last thirty thousand years, and it alarms me the Humans are still wary of the Reapers."

"Regarding these Reapers..." The Turian speaks up, feeling more comfortable talking about enemies and military, "How are your governments responding to this entity?"

Tevos answers first, "The Matriarchs are still debating an increase of GDP for joint defence forces from 1.1% to 2.1%. I can see a decision made in favour of the increase by weeks end. For home defences, we have already accepted a proposal increasing spending by 1%."

"And the Union is increasing surveillance of the outer colonies and habitable zones. We do not believe the Reapers to be the greater threat at this moment in time."

The Turian blinks to the Asari and taps his fingers in a certain way to the Salarian, "I see, my own government will soon be putting forth a request for new dreadnoughts and release from the Farixen treaty. We are also going to try and push our military spending to 5.01%, but I have doubts this will make it past the Primarchs, our spending on the fleets is already beyond sustainable."

"Do you think a few more dreadnoughts will help against these humans?" Tevos asks honestly. "Do you forget the size of that... collosal vessel we have yet to give a class name to?"

"No." The Turian admits, "But they seem to want us to build more warships, and my people are happy to comply. It will also help pacify my species, who are not too fond of no longer being the dominant military power."

"In that case the Asari will not object to the dissolving of the Farixen treaty, what say you, Valern?"

Valern bites her cheek momentarily, it is no secret that the Salarians gain the most out of the Farixen treaty thanks to the fact their warships are more costly to produce than either the Asari or the Turians due to the advanced technology infused into their warships. Eventually, the Salarian responds, "I can see no issue, providing a removal of sanctions for previous work in stealth technologies and a blessing to continue said work." It is not a well-known fact that the Turians and Asari had enforced sanctions on the Salarians for previous work in stealth technology.

The Turian gives his own species equivalent of a shrug, his own people have been quietly dabbling with stealth technology, so he can see no harm in undoing the sanctions. "Done. Tevos?"

Tevos does not like the idea, the Salarians like to fight 'dirty', the genophage being a prime example, and stealth technology will only give them a greater capability to fight dirty - yet, her own species alike the Turians have been developing stealth vessels, and a removal of laws preventing them couldn't harm their development. "Providing no stealth vessels ever find their way into Asari space without our blessing, I will agree to this."

"Then it is agreed, we will officially dissolve the Farixen treaty, remove the sanctions on the Salarians and lift laws preventing stealth capabilities. Moving on, what have you heard of the Geth?"

Tevos breaths out as she leans back in her chair, "Where do we start?" She then asks. "My sources inform me the humans are providing 11 worlds, one for each sapient species, on the premise the colonists engage with the Geth."

"So, the humans are giving the Geth 11 worlds, going against every rule we have regarding the Geth. Thoughts?"

Valern replies to the Turian, "The worlds are in human space, and we can not dictate what happens there."

"No." Sparatus agrees, "But we can rule organisations operating from our space that aid these worlds. Fine them, dissolve them, arrest directors, make any who venture to these worlds fugitives. We can stop any public and private aid to them, then, we can also stop Geth vessels from passing through our space to arrive at said worlds."

"And how will the humans react?" Challenges Tevos? "This could be taken in many ways, none of which are desirable. Let's look at the bigger picture, what are they trying to achieve by doing this?"

"My sources claim the humans want peace between Geth and Organics." Supplies Valern.

"An admirable goal," responds Sparatus, "And fantastic if it works, but if it fails, they have given the Geth 11 new worlds to operate from."

"What do you think they will do if it fails?"

This question seemed to stump everyone.

/.../

"So?" River asks, looking up from the data pad she had been overlooking with her adoptive mother, "What will you do in that scenario."

"Define fail, if you mean, which I assume you do, that relations between Geth and Organics fail, then I will intervene before things sour into hostilities, and initiate a joint council - human - Geth investigation into why it failed. If it fails for any other reason, then there are no losses, the worlds are purged.

This is all assuming, however, that my agents fail to stop the colony's collapse, and I have the fullest faith that they are more than capable of ensuring that does not happen."

/.../

 **3 Weeks later**

A female Turian named Xindi looks up from her terminal, in the last few weeks she has been on Earth on an exploratory mission from the Turian Hierarchy. Her job is a simple one, live among the humans, and report on what they are like, and to get the best feel for Humans, she was invited to live in shared accommodation on Earth with three humans, an Asari doing the same job as herself and a Salarian. "Good Morning," Xindi says to a human that has entered the room, the human is a soldier, but considering the fact humanity has eradicated ageing, most humans have had military training at some point in their life and with the Reapers coming, most have been called into service.

"Mornin'" The man named Ozzy replies as he heads towards the kitchen in the studio like flat, he replies in perfect Turian, despite the fact human vocal chords should not be able to produce the sounds required, and unusually, he speaks with a very heavy accent more common to southern Palavern. "It's gunna be a corka day out there, 30 degrees, little cloud cover, good swells," The man continues as he whacks a frying pan onto a hob, "Should be ideal for surfin' if you fancy it?"

Xindi looks to the ocean, only to feel a small shudder of dread run down her spine, "Turians and water do not mix, but you should ask Tess, Asari love the oceans, and I am curious,"

"Oh?" Replies Ozzy as he tasks a 3d food printer to make some bacon.

"Why do you cook?" Asks Xindi, "You have the technology to just make this as a meal in a second or two, so why cook?"

Ozzy shrugs his shoulders, "Cookin' keeps me planted you know, keeps me in the real world, and I could have machines do everything for me, brush my teeth, wipe my arse, yady yada but where's the fun in that? I mean sure, its handy at times, but well, yeah, you get the gist."

/.../

 **5 days later**

Ital Rmat, the Prothean assigned ambassador sniffs his drink with a big inhale before exhaling a little and taking a sip, to a human the drink is bland, like most Prothean drinks, but it does the trick for Ital. With his thirst quenched he begins, "It has come to our attention, that your people are committing sacrilege of the highest order."

The Salarian ambassador sent from the council appreciates the way the Protheans do politics, there are no smoke screens and trickery to their words like that of the Asari and Turians, meaning what the Protheans want to say, they say. "Of what sacrilege do you speak of?"

"You allow your peasants to crawl among the ruins of our ancestors, reaping their riches, violating their place of rest."

The Salarian takes a small pause, he knows where this is going, "We have allowed a select few to 'crawl among the ruins' and in doing so we have advanced our technologies by leaps and bounds."

"Hmm," The Prothean grumbles, his throat allowing the sound to come through with more of a low growl, "We care not for what you have gained, only the transgression. You will terminate all activity on our sites."

"In return for what?" Pushes the Salarian, "We agreed what space was ours, and what space was yours. All of our work is in our space, you have no right to dictate what we do there."

How Ital wished that these were the old days, where this would be settled with who could slog it out the best, "Mass Synthesisers." Ital responds, "We will provide you the schematics for Mass Synthesisers. In return, you will abandon all activity on Prothean sites till futures end."

The Salarian almost salivates at the idea of getting Prothean technology straight from the Protheans, "What are these, 'Mass Synthesisers?"

The Prothean pushes a datapad across the table, "Your method of procuring element zero is primitive like the primitives you are, you collect it from dust of all things. With our technology, you will be able to mass produce it. With this technology, your rickety ships will never need stop for a resupply of element zero."

Now the Salarian is salivating, with this technology shipping would become infinately cheaper, and the strategic advantages of being able to produce element zero in mass quantities is beyond measure, "All this in exchange for our abandonment of Prothean sites."

"Hmm," The Prothean growls again. "All Prothean sites, now run along, I am sure you need to report to your puppet master."

/.../

 **7 Days Later**

Liara is bored out of her mind, yet in her current setting, she cannot show it, for doing so would weaken her mother's political position for complex and boring reasons she does not care for, "Excuse me, child." A voice calls to her, and without missing a beat Liara turns to the voice source and bows her head in traditional Asari greeting. Liara would much rather be off on one of her digs, but the Council have recently ruled that all Prothean sites are now off limits, with everyone being rejected from Prothean sites no matter their expertise or background.

"Matriarch T'vollock, it is my pleasure, your doctrine on free movement has been a stimulating read, giving me many pauses." Liara lies through her teeth, the doctrine was like most politics, mind-numbing.

The Matriarch is full of smiles, and Liara knows that like her, these are probably fake smiles, just so the Matriarch can play the Asari game of politics. "Enough about me and my policies, matron, it is you I am intrigued by. Your trip to the Prothean homeworld must have been a fascinating experience for you, given your research, but I am curious as to how you would place them in the political world, and any thoughts you may have on how to proceed with future relations."

Liara is much happier to talk of Protheans, but she does not kid herself that this could all be a ploy to soften her up and pry information from her that she would not have parted with otherwise. "I..." Hearing a loud commotion Liara turns her head to look in the disturbances direction and is amused by what she sees and hears.

"And I am Matriarch..." An old Asari says in the distance, who the Asari is talking to Liara cannot see because of the number of people gathered around.

"Good to know, but you're in my way..."

As the distrurbance pushes its way through the crowd that has gathered Liara eventually sees who, and what has been the cause of such amusement, "River?" Liara calls, concerned about why the Ardat-Yakshi is here.

"There you are," River replies as she pushes through a few Matriarchs, arriving near Liara River looks around, "And here I thought finding you amongst the cosmos would be the hard part, not pushing past these mules."

"What are you doing here?" Liara asks, concerned that just talking to River would jeopardise her mother's position. The entire room seems to have gone quiet to hear the commotions excuse. "And why are you wearing what looks like armour?"

"To answer your second question first, my mother insisted, Reapers pawns and all, although I do feel like a frock would have done better in this scenario, as for your first question, your friendly neighbourhood Protheans have requested your presence."

Liara is confused, and it is written on her face, "The Protheans?"

"Yes." River replies. "You know, four eyes, grumpy complexion." Seeing some security approach River rolls her eyes before slamming a small egg like object on the floor, only for a small barrier to form around her and Liara, preventing the security from interrupting them. The security could try their damned hardest to get through it, but the security lacks the weaponry to do so.

Liara looks around as she thinks, this could work out for the better, just the fact the Protheans have supposedly asked for her, and the fact others in the room have heard of the request can only do good. "When do they want to see me?"

"Right now." River replies, "Like right this second. Good to go?"

"Good to go?" Liara asks, eyes wide, "I am barely dressed for such an occasion. Arriving at Prothean space takes days of travel, I would need to prepare."

River shrugs, "Human tech trumps Asari tech. I can have you there in ooh, one millisecond, give or take a few nanoseconds."

Liara smiles a little, this convention was boring her anyway, "Then what are you waiting for?"

True to River's word, Liara and River spawn into a room on the opposite side of the galaxy one mili second later, in the room there are two Protheans. "Welcome, Liara T'soni, and thank you River." The lead Prothean says.

Liara looks from River and to the Protheans, "Hey," She says meekly. "And that was... a most interesting experience. Most of us have assumed that your 'transport' was that of tricks, but unless you have fooled me, I am certain it is not."

"Hmm," The Prothean growls a little, "T'soni, we have an opportunity."

Liara drops her previous train of thought, "Opportunity?"

"We Protheans," The second Prothean begins, its voice, and a less colourful crown being the only identifier that this Prothean is a female, "Lack skills you possess. We want you to excavate Prothean sites, with our blessing."

/.../

 **3 weeks, 2 days after Shepard establishes contact with the Council**

A female Quarian named Tali Vas Quib Quib taps her elongated fingers as she waits patiently in a waiting lounge for a job interview, her first in three months. Around Tali are four others, all crammed into the same small waiting room, and all applying for the same job. Of all those applying Tali is the most qualified, but she is also Quarian, meaning people do not tend to look past her suit. So far, Tali's pilgrimage has felt like nothing but a waste of time to her, having been nothing but going from job interview to job interview with a bit of scrounging on the side for credits, she could have done so much for the fleet in that time if she was travelling with it. Hearing a door open Tali looks up, only to see a Turian exit the room, she recognises the Turian to be the same one that let her into the building for the interview. "Sorry people," The Turian says with a small sigh, "The position is no longer available."

Without a word, Tali leaves the building, and half an hour later she finds herself sat on a ledge overlooking the citadels main drinking water reservoir, the location is a particular favourite of hers, no one bothers her here for what she is, that being a Quarrian.

"That kind of day, was it?" A male voice asks her, causing Tali to jump and turn to view the voice's source, another Quarian.

"I don't know how you found me here," Tali responds, "But I was happy being alone."

The male Quarian stands still momentarily before sitting next to Tali, he sits next to her for a while in silence before saying, "The name is Vahe."

Tali turns to regard Vahe before saying, "Vahe vas?"

Vahe responds slowly, "Vahe Vas New Rannoch."

Tali snorts, a few Quarian live ships had attempted to colonise worlds over the years, with each one seemingly having called the new world New Rannoch, and each world failed for various reasons. "Another Vas Rannoch? I'll give you ten years before you give up."

Vahe shrugs, "Been living there for ooh, 21 years…."

"Liar." Tali accuses Vahe without pause, "No colony has survived that long."

"Ours has." Vahe responds casually, "We had help from friends, they made sure we had the technology at hand to survive on a new planet."

"The only friend Quarians have are Quarians. What are you here for?"

Vahe sighs at this Quarians outlook, he hopes that soon with his help the Quarian will change her tone, "Work. My employer wants me to give you this." Vahe reaches into one of his many suits pockets before pulling out a small booklet covered in a leathery material.

Tali looks at the booklet for a long minute before taking it, because of Quarians lacking access to garden worlds, they lack the capabilities to make paper. "Who uses paper these days?" Tali asks as she regards the booklet she has just taken into her possession. She can not read the text on the front of the book, her translator cannot read it, meaning it is either new, or rare, or new and rare.

"Friends." Vahe responds initially, "Open it."

Tali opens the booklet carefully, the fact it is paper makes her all that more cautious, "What is this?" She asks. Inside the booklet there is a picture of her, along with some Quarian text, stipulating name, height and blood group among a few other small details that should be private.

Vahe smirks a little under his mask, he gets the same response from every Quarian pilgrim he has approached, "A passport, with this you can get onto New Rannoch, and Asgard."

Tali raises a brow in her helmet, "You lie, Asgard is notoriously difficult to get permission to visit, let alone a passport to." Asgard being the sole human world the Council are allowed to visit.

Vahe nods in agreement, "Oh, very much so, but my people, Vas New Rannoch's have a special agreement with the humans. If you don't believe me check your bank account, I deposited 10,000 credits out of good will, all I ask is you show up to the human embassy. Show security that booklet and you get to skip the cues."

Tali shakes her head, "This is fake, right?"

Vahe shrugs, "I've given you ten thousand credits which should keep you sleeping under good shelter for the next few months at least. Go tomorrow to the human embassy and find out, anyway, I need to go, Keelah Se-'lai Tali Vas Quibquib."

The next day Tali looks down at the booklet given to her, and then up to the large ques that have formed outside the human embassy, the cues are so large people are waiting half a kilometre down the street, and it's barely even 0800 yet. Most of the people waiting in the cue are hopefuls, hoping to get a glimpse at Asgard and human worlds, but most will be turned away.

Deciding to take Vahe's advice Tali walks to the front of the que, where a C-SEC guard is standing stag over the embassy's front door. As Tali approaches the guard subconsciously tightens the grip of his weapon, "There is a que, grease rat."

Tali ignores the guard's insult as she pulls out the booklet, "I have this."

The guard doesn't even bother looking at the book, "It's a fake, get to the back of the que." In truth, human 'passports' are so rare the guard has never seen one with his own eyes to know if its real or not.

"Sir," Tali tries, her voice more forceful, "You did not even look at this book." The Guard does not care, and Tali is forced to retreat, her hopes of the book being real quickly fading, but she decides to wait for the change of guard rotation and try again, it is sure to be faster than waiting in the que.

Twenty minutes later as Tali sucks a drink through her induction port an Asari approaches her, "Tali Vas Quibquib?" The Asari asks, but the Asari's demeanour tells Tali that the Asari knows exactly who she is.

Upon further inspection of the Asari Tali notices the Asari is a powerful CSEC officer. "Yes?" Tali replies hesitantly.

"You're not in trouble, don't worry, but if you would like into the human embassy I can escort you in now."

Tali frowns, she is wary as she knows some people use fake CSEC uniforms to exploit the vulnerable, "I will go if you take me in through the front door." By doing this the CSEC Guard cannot take her down any questionable backstreets.

The Asari nods, something Tali picks up on, "Sure, follow me."

Tali does as asked, and soon they are approaching the embassy's front door, and as they approach the guard that turned Tali away braces up for the officer. The officer does not care for the guard and leads Tali straight in, and soon the Quarian finds herself in a small comfortable office on the embassy's third floor. Tali notices how the office door held the name of someone sounding remarkably human.

"Please sit and make yourself comfortable." The Asari says while gesturing to a soft comfortable looking chair, "Can I get you a drink of any kind?"

Tali gestures to the drink she was drinking earlier, "I am fine, thank you. Who are you?"

"Me?" Asks the Asari before going, "Oh, sorry." Tali then watches in fascination as what looks like a very complex hologram collapses, exposing a human underneath. "I am vulnerable and protected species immigration officer Brooks of the Systems Alliance, nice to meet you." The human then holds a hand out in traditional Quarian greeting, so Tali, quickly recovering from her shock returns it.

"Why am I here?" Tali then asks.

"You are here," Brooks starts, "Because you need a job, and we have a job to offer."

"Keep going." Tali says, she will not get her hopes up quite yet.

Brooks nods before expanding. "My people have been space capable for just over 50,000 years, yet we have only allowed ourselves to properly get to know three races, those being Prothean, Rachni and finally, Quarian." Tali raises a brow, but this is hidden under the mask, "My people, who can live tens of thousands of years in the same solar system, need more exposure. We are going to offer you a job to work along some of our scientists to understand our mass relay technology."

Tali narrows her eyes, "What do I get out of this? and you know Quarians? My father is an admiral and he only just learned of your existence a few weeks back!"

Without missing a beat Brooks replies, "To answer your first question, you are the daughter of an admiral, you need to bring something exotic, something special back to the fleet simply out of expectation. We will allow you to bring back to the fleet the science behind mass relays, no other species will be given this technology. As to how we know Quarians, we helped a live ship establish a colony a few hundred years back."

"You have?"

"Yes." Brooks tells her, "You are an endangered species and we have a duty of care."

Tali starts to discretely play with her fingers, she does not like being talked of as an endangered species, "Why are you only going to give relay technology to the quarians?"

Brooks replies the rehearsed response, "The council prohibit the research of Mass Relays, fearing someone will cause an unscheduled core breach, and no other species has the technical knowledge to utilise the information you will gain access too."

"What do you get out of this?" Tali asks, "Why would you give up such knowledge?"

"Because," Brooks starts, "We are no longer bound by relays, it is primitive technology. As for what we get, we get the favour of the fleet and the quarrian people. Our end term goal is to bring all Quarians together on Rannoch, but we can not do that if you distrust us."

Tali taps her fingers, she already knows she is going to accept the job offer, but the humans must be made aware of something, "You should know, with my peoples history with AI, my people do not trust you. It may take some time for them to do anything more than thank you for the technology."

Brooks shrugs, "We are patient people, and we fully understand your mistrust of humans."

"Then tell me about my new job.

/.../

 **5 Weeks after** first **contact**

Shepard taps her fingers periodically as she thinks, a few humans that were working with the Geth have been abducted, and rightly so, she is the one to deal with it. "Mother?" River asks gingerly as she looks up from the document she is reading, "Is this really as bad as your making it out to be?"

Shepard simply nods as she continues to tap her fingers and look out into deep space. Eventually, Shepard replies verbally, "Yes, yes it is."

The Asari sighs as she goes back to reading whatever it is she is reading, and then after a while, she asks, "So, what are you thinking? Just beam them out like they were never there? Embarrass the brass?"

"My pets need exercise," Shepard replies merely, yet coldly. Yes, transporting the abducted humans out would be the natural solution, but it is not by default the correct solution.

River has a shiver run down her spine, she knows precisely what Shepard means by 'pets', and she hates the things. "You would unleash them horrors for a simple abduction?"

"It is more than an abduction." Shepard replies as she starts to make plans, "Never before has human life been put in jeopardy because of extraterrestrials, meaning my role as the ET Enforcer is being tested like never before. Our people want to see an adequate response."

"And you think," Queries River, "That sending in your monsters is the best way to solve the situation?"

"It is a solution." Shepard replies honestly, "But a message needs to be sent, and it needs to be listened to."

"Please, will you at least try diplomacy first? Those weapons should never be used, no matter the circumstance."

Shepard taps her fingers some more as a plan formulates in her head, eventually she says, "They will get one chance."

/.../

 **3 hours later, citadel.**

Shepard immediately locks the doors behind the Batarian ambassador the moment he walks into his office on the citadel, causing the ambassador to ask with alarm, "What is the meaning of this?"

The Enforcer does not give him an immediate answer, "Sit." She commands instead as she sits in the Ambassadors chair behind his own desk. As the room is dimly lit, there is a menacing red glint in Shepard's eyes, which causes the Batarian to pause momentarily.

"This..."

"Sit!" Shepard reiterates with a loud voice to drown the Batarian out, and to add effect to her voice she made sure the room's light flickered. The Batarian slowly but surely feeling a lot smaller than he did earlier does as asked.

"18 hours ago," Shepard continues in her normal voice when the Batarian is seated, "A vessel was attacked." The Batarian is wisely quiet, "Your government sponsored this attack."

The Batarian looks puzzled, "I need more information than this to go off." The Batarian government sponsors more than a few 'pirates'.

Shepard nods, "This vessel was Geth." She then leans over the table slightly, "I want my people back."

The Batarian is wise enough to know that his government probably did sponsor an attack on the Geth, but nothing is as simple as it seems with his own people, "I will need time, as you probably know my governing body is made of many houses."

"I am going to tell you once." Shepard replies, "If my people are not returned before days end, you will learn that hell hath no fury like my wrath." More specifically, hell hath no monsters like Shepards pets.

6 hours later

Shepard flashes into existence in front of the Batarian ambassador, her arms are crossed. "My people?" She asks.

The Batarian looks exhausted as he pushes a datapad to her, "The houses of Jaarl and Nised are refusing to co-operate, Oke has, however, yet they alone lack the capability to release your people. I can give you all the information on where your people are, and who has them. All I ask in return is that my people escape your wrath."

Shepard looks over the paperwork datapad; she consumes the information on it in a matter of seconds. "I already know all of this," She replies, "But I appreciate your effort. My retaliation will be limited."

/.../

 **20 hours later**

Shepard walks down a dark corridor that has a single red light flashing at the end; there are dead Batarians splattered all across the hallway in various states, some are missing limbs, some have holes punched through their torsos, others have a hole in their forehead. She does not stop to inspect the Batarians; her pets are most efficient in their work, they leave nothing but death in their wake. Coming across a sealed door Shepard punches her fist through it with little effort and tears the steel door open, inside she finds more dead Batarians, who probably thought they were safe behind the thick cold steel of the door.

Before she sent her pets in, she pulled her own people out along with the slaves serving onboard the ship, no one should have to see her pets work their magic, that would leave behind nightmares like no other. Strutting onto the bridge like she owns it, she checks the ships logs, and ensures some video recordings of her pets slaughtering the crew are intact before leaving the vessel to visit two houses that are the homes of the house leaders that refused to cooperate. If her message is to be received, it needs to leave behind a lasting memory, and a feeling of pure dread.

/.../

 **Meanwhile**

"Why are we taking cover?" Asks the same female Prothean that greeted Liara two weeks ago. Liara and a team of Protheans have for the last week been excavating a Prothean site the Council never knew existed.

Liara does not reply till she has thrown a rock, and when nothing happens Liara replies, "Because more often then not, your ancestors have left big automated guns behind doors like this."

"Hmm," The Prothean Liara has come to know as Vixen growls, "And they shoot indiscriminately at anything that moves?"

"Typically yes, and with extreme prejudice." Using a mirror on a stick Liara looks around the corner and at the doors opening, and sure enough, there is a significant gun hiding behind the door Liara opened remotely when in cover. "See for yourself?"

"Give me your primitive tool then."

Liara hands the stick over and the Prothean growls a little, "Hmm, my Ancestors were smart. But in the present this weapon is clearly powered down, why are we still hiding?"

"Because some require more than simple movements to activate, such as a biological signature. Others require an unknown signal."

"Well, let me find out. Daei, let us see if you have what it takes yet, remove yourself from cover."

The Prothean Vixen commands does as asked, and visually startles when the gun powers up and trains its sights upon him, but the weapon does not fire. "Ha, Daei, your backbone is still weak, you will never join the front lines till it strengthens," Vixen says as she too stands from out of cover. Liara seeing this thinks it is safe to also come out of cover and begins to move, but the moment the gun gets a fix on her it opens fire, causing Liara to squeal and hide from its wrath once more.

Vixen cannot contain her laughter as she approaches the weapon and shuts it down by pulling what she assumes is a power chord from it. "That amused me greatly," She says when Liara joins her near the now powered down weapon. Looking around the room now unlocked to them Vixen sighs, "Just another room full of dead bodies."

"No," Liara says as she studies her omni-tool, "We have a life sign, but it is faint."

It took some time to find the life pod with a life sign, and a few hours later they are looking over a Prothean that has been in slumber for the last 50 thousand years or so. "How do we wake this sleeper?" Vixen asks as she prods almost every button on the old pod.

"Well," Liara says as she studies her omni-tool, "Typically these pods open the moment we try and pop the catch, but never have we tried to open a live pod before. Looking at this code, it appears we need to enter a code to open this."

"Code?" Queries Vixen.

"Yes, the pod does not yet believe it is time to awaken its inhabitant. One moment... there, that should do it."

Liara and Vixen stand back as the life pod doors slowly open, and when the doors open both stand forward again to view its occupant. After a few seconds the pods occupant begins to wake, "Asari, I would stand back if I was you."

"Sorry?" Liara asks.

"This Prothean will expect to see Protheans, not primitives. You will startle him."

Believing Vixens logic to be sound Liara steps back, just as the Prothean in the life pod opens its eyes, "Ugh," The Protheans says before slowly sitting up, "How many?" The Prothean speaks in the language of the ancestors, modern Prothean is slightly different. Fortunately, Vixen can speak both modern and Ancestor Prothean.

"How many what?"

"How many survived?" The Prothean asks with anger.

Understanding Vixen says, "One."

"One?" Repeats the Prothean before quickly recovering, "And from your colony?"

"Our new homeworld has a population of 16.2 million."

The Prothean looks most relievied, "Then our people will have our vegence." Looking around the Prothean notices Liara, "What is the primitive here for?"

"That primitive," Vixen tells the new Prothean, "Was the one who awoke you. We could not have done it without her help."

The Prothean snears a little, "Surely we do not rely on primitives so much?"

"No, however this primitive has proved most helpful, she has the experience we simply do not. Now, who are you, Ancestor?"

The Prothean stands on shaky legs and looks around the room of dead life pods, "I was Commander Javik. How long do we have?"

"One sol year."

"What is a sol year?"

"300 days as if you were on the homeworld."

Javik wants to snarl, "And how are we to fight the Reapers with so few?"

"We have powerful allies."

/.../

 **2 days later**

Udina stands tall with his hands behind his back as he looks up to the esteemed council, he knows what he has been summoned for, but he does not let on this fact. "I was summoned?" He queries, politely.

"We have concerns," Valern starts, "And we are sure you know of what we speak."

"Ah," Udina replies, "Yes, regarding the abduction of our people. Yes, a most unfortunate event. I hope you see that this never happens again."

"While a crime to be sure, this is not why this meeting has been called," Tevos responds, "We are concerned with the way your Enforcer has handled the said incident."

"So are we," Udina replies as he begins to pace a little, "Never before has a human been taken captive by extraterrestrials, our Enforcer, frankly, was light handed in this manner."

"Light handed?" Repeats the Turian councillor, "The Batarian crew were slaughtered by monsters, and heads of houses have had parasites explode from their chest cavities. What you unleashed upon them are beyond nightmares, not even the Rachni could send such shivers down our people's spines."

"As they are designed to be. Our Xenomorphs are specially bred, they fester fear like no other entity we know of, and they will without compassion punish all those they are set upon. You may allow the Batarians to seize your own people, but we will not." Udina was about to turn, to tell the Council he is done, but before doing so he decided to add a little more, "And next time a government body sponsors the capture of human personnel, I assure you our response will be exponentially heavier."

/.../

 **Invasion day - 10**

In a dark corner of a strange galaxy

A man looking to be in his later stages of life hobbles through a dark cave, outside the cave he has left the entirety of his imperial guards, which are some of the most elite troopers in the galaxy. Arriving in the middle of a dark cavern the crippled looking man says, "Show yourself." His voice is filled with confidence; he knows his contact is watching him, for it is what he would do.

Shepard materialises in front of him after a moment, the jump from her last location brings her across hundreds of thousands of light years. "This meeting is not scheduled," Shepard says, unimpressed, she would rather be preparing for the Reapers.

The man almost makes a chuckle like sound before tapping his staff twice and saying, "There has been a disruption to our plans." Shepard raises a brow, causing the man to continue, "The rebellious scum have destroyed the weapon."

Shepard breathes out through her nose before nodding, "I am aware. I am sure you can handle this rebellion before they arrive?"

The man smiles, showing his crooked and decaying teeth, "I find your lack of faith disturbing. As we speak my forces are chasing the rebellious factors down the holes they spawned from, victory is all but assured, I have foreseen it. There is more, however."

"Then spit it out."

"My forces have discovered a forward operating base of the Yuuzhan Vong. Their forces are accelerating towards us as we speak."

Shepard performs a few calculations as she pulls information from a few long-range sensors, "Your analysis is correct, you have less than four years 162 days until first contact. Crush the rebellion, Emperor Palpatine; you cannot be fighting an effective war against the Yuuzhan Vong if you are fighting a war in your own back garden."

/.../

 **Invasion day minus 1**

Admiral Hackett approaches Shepard from behind as she looks out into deep space in the direction the Reapers are approaching from, "Are we ready?" He asks her.

Shepard looks at him momentarily before nodding, "We have our arcs set up, the Protheans are ready to go, the council are more prepared than they were a year ago, and we have our plan. Tomorrow, we will find out if we have done enough, but for now, ready the fleets."

 **Thanks Chaps!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright chaps, thanks for all your comments, favourites and follows! I am genuinely blown away by the response this story has. This chapter is a shorter one, looking more at the invasion before human intervention, what its like to live with AI and how things can develop ground side. If you are not a fan of Battlestar Galactica (the 2003 TV series) you can skip the final bit of this chapter (Signified by these squiggles ~~~) in its entirety, it adds nothing to the story but extra nerd/geek credits.**

 **Again, I'll try and respond to reviews, but my job means I rarely have the internet to respond, so sorry if I take a while to get round to you.**

 **Cheers and enjoy chaps**

River looks around Liara's room, checking for others before dropping her invisibility shielding and saying, "Liara, we need to talk."

Liara almost jumps out of her skin, not having expected the Ardat-Yakshi in her room. "River!" Liara says harshly before calming a little, "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to keep you alive." River responds as she crosses the small space between them, "What is your mother doing about the Reaper invasion?"

Liara clenches her fists slightly, "River, there is a Justicar on the estate right now! You need to get out of here before she catches you, and should my mother's guards find you in my room, they will not be pleased."

River shrugs, she is not scared of the Justicar for the simple reason that should things get too hot, then she can transport out, and if things really get bad, then, well, Shepard is protective of her. The guards are an issue, however, since after all, she will want to come back here in the future. "Then I will be quick. Now, what is your Mother doing about the invasion?"

Liara waits for River to come to a stop before responding, "Not as much as you probably want, further fortifications are in place on the estate, we have more commando's, and extra food reserves."

"Damn it, Liara." River replies with some frustration, "The Reapers are almost upon you, and that isn't enough. Look at this." River holds her hand out and a holographic image presents itself, on the image, there are so many vessels that their numbers cannot be distinguished. "These are no more than a month out from contacting the Hades Cluster garrison. This group here, more than 10 thousand ships that are capital class, meaning each is more than 2km in length." River points to another grouping of Reapers, "This section is what you would call destroyers, a good 50,000 ships and each is more than 1km in length, and that's not even the main battle group, the Reapers are keeping them held back for now. Liara, fortifications and more commandos aren't enough; you need to get somewhere safe."

Liara pales a little at the numbers before asking, "Against such odds what can we do? And where in this galaxy is safe?"

River reaches over to her bag and pulls out a few books, "These can get you anywhere in human space, all you need to do is take them and ask me to get you away from here. Hell, with these I can get you secured accommodation on Earth with beach front views."

"How did you get those?" Asks Liara, surprised, the Asari knows that these types of passports are incredibly rare, to the point even humans struggle to get permission for secured accommodation on Earth.

River rubs the back of her neck as she says, "Despite how discrete we have been, my Mother knows about us, and she cares about me, which means quietly she is keeping an eye out for you. So feel privileged, the most powerful entity we know of has just become your personal guardian."

Liara feels a slight shiver run down her back at the thought the Enforcer is keeping an eye out for her before clenching her fists and saying, "While I appreciate the gesture, I can't accept these. We can't just leave the estate behind; we have a duty of care to 587 people."

River lowers her head in defeat momentarily before looking back up. "I can't save that many people Liara, really my mother shouldn't have even given you one of these, never mind five, so 592 is definitely a no go."

This prompts Liara to ask, "If your people are so powerful, why not? And why can't you just blow the Reapers out the sky for us before they arrive?"

River considers her next words carefully before replying, "We have had to make compromises to ensure we were not detected by the Reapers before we wanted to, meaning we live on overpopulated planets and constructs. As for why we can't just blow them out of the sky, Liara, these monsters are not easily destroyed, tens of thousands of years of calculations have gone into our current strategy. My mother will not deviate, she was created to ensure Humanity conquered the Reapers, and she will let nothing stand in her way to do so.

/.../

 **41 days later.**

The Reaper invasion went exactly as the 6.8 trillion computer models simulated. With the Citadel no longer activated by Sovereign the Reapers entered the Milkyway through the Horsehead Nebula, from there, the machines entered Volus space, inviting the wrath of the Turian Military. With the Turians backed by the Asari, Hanar, Elcor and Salarians, a small resistance was formed but the alliance was losing battle after battle, solar system by solar system, it was coming evidently clear to all involved that the war was going to be swift and one-sided. What makes this fact all so apparent is the fact that Palavern and Thessia, the strongest strongholds in Citadel space, have fallen. The only space the Reapers have yet to venture is space beyond the Human relays, but their scouts had been actively probing the Relays and surrounding areas, only to be chased off by powerful Prothean or Human fleets that could be suitably described as easy to agitate guard dogs hovering over the door to their kennel.

 **Two weeks later, Surkesh, Salarian homeworld.**

An old Salarian stares at the monitor in front of him, his job demands from him simple work that is usually left to the younglings fresh out of combat school, but the Salarian armed forces have called upon every available Salarian to serve in their military. The younglings would be drafted into ground side jobs that demand the more robust and the older into jobs that required less physical strength, thus being the reason for the older Salarian sat behind a screen doing what would typically be a younglings job.

The loss of the Turian homeworld, various Council Systems and the majority of Batarian space had taught the Salarians that this is not going to be an easy won war, but more worrisome for the Salarians is that it is going to be a war of attrition and insurgencies, something history shows they do not excel at.

The Council has been trying their damned hardest to take back territory lost, but it does not take the quick mind of a Salarian to deduce that unless something serious happens, that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Looking at his monitor, the old Salarian quickly does the maths; the Union had called upon any ship with a gun to service, meaning that at this moment in time, 2,358 ships are pointing their cannon at the exit point of Surkesh's relay. Each and every ship is now just waiting for the Reapers to arrive, with intelligence promising the Reapers are no more than 5 minutes from showing their face. Salarian intelligence is famous for being trustworthy, so the old Salarian does not doubt the Reapers are but a moment away.

The air is tense, and the old Salarian can feel it, everyone is making their peace in their own way as they watch the dreaded clock tick down to 0. All of their simulations show that the Reapers are going to have a decisive victory, and not a single soul has a false impression that they will win the battle, no, they only hope to give the Reapers a bloody nose, so that they do not go silently into the night. There are efforts to preserve the Salarian species, but for those plans to work, the Salarian Union needs the Godly Machines to believe they have thrown everything they have at them. Thus is the reason for the large force they have gathered for what no one doubts is a lost cause.

With 30 seconds left on the clock, a claxon rings aloud, and the first batch of fire in the battle for Surkesh is shot before the Reapers have even entered the battlefield. The tactic is simple, by shooting from so far out, the 30 seconds will allow the 2-tonne slugs of superheated high explosive tungsten rounds to arrive at their end destination just as the Reapers drop out of the relay, the AI abominations will have 0 chance to move out of the way of the incoming carnage. With the slugs fired down range the Salarians move their ships back to behind some well-stealthed anti-matter tipped mines, with hopes of luring the enraged Reapers into them.

Just as the timer hits 0, another batch of fire is released, and the Salarians watch as thousands of Reapers pour from the relay like hornets from a disturbed nest. Many of the Reapers soon start flashing bright white as the tungsten rounds slam into them, but only a few of the abominations are removed from the battle, their kinetic barriers and hulls prove to be too powerful for the conventional tungsten slugs fired from mass accelerated guns.

As the Reapers begin to bear down on them the old Salarian rubs his right horn as a disturbance forms on the monitor he is working over, the sensors and computer algorithms unable to fathom what they are reading. Looking up from his monitor and out the observation screen the old Salarian sees a large blinding white light as an unusual looking relay emerges, the relay is of unusual design, but he knows it from recent history. Seconds later the light vanishes, and the relay is sat ominously in the space between the Salarian fleets and the Reapers.

The Salarians are initially confused by the relay, they know who it belongs to but not why it is there, but soon the relay begins pulsing a bright blue as if awakening from a deep slumber. The amphibious Salarians decide to ignore it as they continue to put tungsten rounds between them and the Reapers, believing the AI's to be the more significant threat, but as suddenly as the relay begins pulsing blue, it stops. Seconds after the pulsing stops just shy of two thousand ships, many a few km larger than dreadnought classification flood through the new relay, then everything seems to cease, from Reaper fire to Salarian manoeuvres. Many recognise the ships as being similar to the Prothean one that escorted Little Brid to the Prothean Homeworld.

"Why aren't we firing?" The old Salarian hears his captain demand, to which the gunnery chief responds,

"Controls aren't responding!" Presumably across the entire fleet, the old Salarian thinks, it is the only justifiable reason why every ship has halted fire, but it does not excuse why the Reapers were not returning with their own shots of molten tungsten.

A few seconds after the gunnery chief replies a gruff sounding voice makes itself heard over their ship-wide communications, "Salarian vessels, you have proved your incompetence in this war, losing system after system, planet after planet. Return your vessels behind the line indicated, and we will deal with this infestation."

On the viewscreen, a top-down image of the solar system is detailed, and a line is drawn behind the moon of Surkesh, the location will effectively put any Salarian vessel out of action as they will not have a clear shot at the Reapers.

Of course, many of the Salarians reject this idea of hiding behind the moon; they question why the Reapers are not firing on the new ships, they argue that giving up their position now would give the Reapers the greater advantage.

Before they can even make a collective decision to retreat a flash of white light identical to the one that spawned the relay appears between themselves and the Prothean vessels in front. Out of this white light an 80km behemoth forms, the design is alien to that of the other Prothean ships, but similar to some of those that surrounded the citadel not too long ago.

As the Salarians watch countless smaller ships flood out from the 80km monster, they do not realise their own ships are now being forced out of the battle arena, their ships in the entirety having been hacked and now controlled by the Protheans. This would not have been possible unless spies inserted code into the Salarian ships during their construction phase.

The old Salarian does not comment on the fact they are now being forcefully removed from the arena; he knows this new fleet is capable of the deed they are not, and that they would do nothing but hinder their efforts. As he watches the monitor in front of him, he can see the Reapers and Protheans position their ships, almost circling one another like a Krogan looking another in the eye before a fight, measuring one another up. Soon all hell lets loose as the two fleets brutally clash in flashes of exotic colours and exchanges of high powered weaponry the Salarians could only salivate over. The Protheans are bringing 50,000 years of revengeful desire to the table, along with one supercarrier based on a human design for support, and the Reapers billions of years of experience fighting far more tenacious foes.

Meanwhile, Shepard watches from the bridge of her leading Pillar of Conquest; the ship is hidden outside the combat zone, ready to step in at a moments notice, but that will not happen. The Protheans have asked for Humanity to stand aside while they play their own cards, they want the glory of personally sending the Reapers to hell. Shepard doubts the Protheans can handle the Reapers on their own, not one of her simulations suggests the Protheans can, but she will let them find that out the hard way.

The first ten or so minutes is brutal, as the two opposing forces collided they discovered one thing about each other, neither one had a critical advantage over the other. While the Reapers had the stronger hulls, weaponry and quicker response times, the Protheans brought more developed shielding and defences designed explicitly for Reaper weaponry.

The Reapers were forced to adapt their tactics of getting up close and personal, and the Protheans were forced to simply endured the battle of attrition like any good Prothean fleet should. After 15 minutes the battle was entering its final stages. With the Reapers having concluded that they could win the battle but not proceed to invade the Salarian homeworld due to losses inflicted space side, they begin the arduous task of pulling their forces out of the system using complex withdrawal manoeuvres. The Reapers advanced warfare analysis would continue to study the conflict long after the battle, and when they have an optimised solution to this entity, they will reattempt the harvest of Surkesh.

The battle went much how Shepard expected it to, for every ship the Protheans had managed to take down, the Reapers destroyed two of the Protheans, resulting in 437 destroyed Prothean ships of cruiser class or bigger in orbit around the Salarian homeworld. What interested her the most, however, was the Reapers inability to combat the supercarrier efficiently, as any ship that tried to get close would be swarmed with more fighter vessels equipped with high explosive weaponry than it could defend against. With all this new information Shepard set to work to alter her plans for future Human Reaper conflict.

The Protheans meanwhile are understandably frustrated with their efforts, even with an additional 2 thousand years to develop and refine their technology; the Reapers are still an entity that could challenge them. The battle also taught them valuable a lesson, locking horns with the Reapers directly as one Prothean would to another is not a viable tactic, they would need to introduce clever tactics and deceit.

/.../

 **Later that day**

Shepard looks a young Krogan in the eye, daring him to challenge her, but the Krogan is wise enough to stand aside, allowing Shepard to walk up the stairs to 'god', the sole Asari that rules Omega.

As Shepard approaches Aria crossess her arms and leans back in her chair, she does not know why the Enforcer is here, but she is sure she is about to find out. Not wanting to let the Enforcer to speak first so that she can control the opening to the conversation Aria says, "Not many can simply make a Krogan Battlemaster stand aside by simply staring them down. Now, what can I do for you, human?"

Before answering Shepard looks at a Batarian scanning her with a menacing look before taking a step closer and saying, "I am here to make a deal."

"Oh?" Asks Aria, "And what is in this for little old me?"

"I don't destroy this station, or remove Omega's Queen."

Aria considers for a moment before saying, "No, you need me, or you would have disposed of me long ago." Shepard raises an eyebrow before a flash of light next to her reveals an Asari that looks exactly like Aria, everything is the same from clothes to how it stands to its facial makeup.

Shepard allows Aria to study the 'Asari' which is just an advanced machine before saying, "Really?"

"Nice puppet." Aria then says after a second to swallow, "So what can her majesty do for you?"

The machine flashes out of existence leaving just Shepard, Aria and her guards. "Last week you updated your defence grid on my anonymous suggestion, which stopped an STG black ops group penetrating your station and allowing an invasion fleet to dock. You owe me, and you will pay by uniting the various... groups that operate in this space and harass the Reaper supply lines."

Aria tilts her head slightly, "Please, uniting the scum will take..."

Shepard throws Aria a bag, and peaking inside Aria finds a few severed heads, "I've made the various groups susceptible to change. I expect you to act soon."

Aria passess the bag onto a guard with little emotion on her face before saying, "Why me? Surely you will want to overlook this task?"

The Enforcer shakes her head, "You have a way of controlling these people, and my people wouldn't look too kindly on me utilising slavers, pirates, so on and so on." Then there is the fact the Enforcer would probably end up killing people left right and centre for just being scum of the highest degree.

The Queen of Omega can see more than a dozen advantages to having control of a small fleet so she blinks, before saying, "Consider it done then." Shepard nods in response before blinking out of existence.

/.../

 **3 weeks later - Reaper occupied Thessia**

River flashes into existence in the middle of an Asari camp and immediately drops a locked metal case onto the floor before bringing her hands in the air when rifles of all kinds are trained on her. "Woah woah woah," She says with a small ting of panic, "Friendly." Despite the panic, River knows the Asari weaponry would not easily penetrate either her shielding or armour.

An Asari who recognises her lowers her own weapon before saying, "Lower your rifles, I can vouch for her."

River bows her head to the Asari before saying, "Thanks Liselle," and picking up the dropped metal case, "Can you take me to Athetya?"

Liselle blinks before gesturing for the younger Asari to follow. As they walk Liselle asks, "How much longer do we have to wait before your friends get involved?"

River shrugs her shoulders, "That depends on the Reapers, my mother is waiting for them to be adequately spread out to maximise the probibility of victory, but as the Reapers are keeping their main forces clustered it could be a while."

Liselle reluctantly accepts the explanation before telling River to wait in a building. After waiting for a small while in the beaten building Athetya walks in, the Matriarchs armour is scratched and marked, showing the hard times she has recently been through, "My time's precious kid, you better have something good."

River nods her head as she undoes the biometric locks on the suitcase, "I've brought these," River opens the suitcase to reveal five dog tag sized pieces of metal and two tubes of a dark space grey material. Lifting one of the dog- tag sized pieces of metal River manipulates so that it expands, revealing that it is in actuality a weapon. "This is... an Enforcers rifle, meaning I could only get a few of these, but rest assured one of these alone can turn a battle."

Athetya reaches out for the rifle and River gingerly hands it over, the rifle is incredibly light, surprising Athetya. "What can it do?" The Matriarch asks.

River shrugs her shoulders, "It is an enforcers lancer, meaning its a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), nothing the Reapers can throw at you groundside will be able to sustain a shot from it, but I'll need to show you how to use it, without training you are far more likely to kill yourself then you are an enemy."

Athetya blinks before putting the rifle down and asking about the tubes of space grey metal. "And these."

"These are human nano-bots designed to fix things, they are incredibly smart and incredibly useful. They can also be used to build things, so defences, weapons, the list goes on."

Athetya picks up a tube carefully, "These aren't going to kill me too, are they?"

River nods, "Actually yes, they were first conceived as a superweapon, capable of ending all life on a targeted planet." The way Shepard once described these bots makes River think of the age old film 'The day the Earth stood still', the nano-bots will reproduce, feeding off organic material till nothing is left. "But they have been repurposed to serve a more productive role."

Athetya puts the vial back down incredibly carefully, "Alright kid, so I'll let you do what you need to do with these as there is no way I'm getting blamed for ending Thessia."

"You couldn't use them anyway, requires a symbiont to interact with them."

"Fine with me." Athetya replies, now show me how to use that game changer." Athetya gestures to the DEW.

/.../

River looks at the five Asari standing around the table she has placed an Enforcers DEW on, they are a small distance from the main camp so that they can test the weapons. "Simply, ladies, this weapon is the most powerful thing you will ever handle in your lives, and it will punish without mercy those who do not show her the respect she deserves." River lets this set in for a second before saying, "LDEW-1, set peak limit to 0.01%, lower limit 0.00001%"

The rifle speaks from some unseen speaker, "Control limits registered."

River then says to the Asari, "For you, I've made this rifle voice controlled," A symbiont would interact with it using their nano-bots. "0.01% is equivalent to an HE grenade exploding at the point of impact. The lower limit is equivalent to a Krogan claymore going off in close proximity."

"What would 100% do?" Asks a curious Asari.

"Kill you," Replies River before expanding, "Think a fully charged Turian dreadnought shot. I've mentioned it before, and I'll say it again, this weapon is the Enforcers primary weapon, it is designed to do one thing and one thing only, and it does that one thing incredibly well."

River then picks up the rifle, "This weapon is not affected by the elements, where you aim is where you shoot, the propagation of the energy beam is the speed of light. Energy is supplied to the weapon from generators in human space, you will never reload with this rifle, but you will need to allow it to cool, however at the energy levels you will use it at, this will not be an issue.

The rifle is also smart, when you are handling the weapon, it knows from your grip, and biometrics if you want to fire it, there is no safety catch."

River hands out the four remaining rifles, "Each rifle has already been set up, play with it and learn how to use it.

The group spend the next half hour or so shooting different targets with the rifles, playing around with their power settings and just generally getting a feel for what the weapon is capable of, but their play comes to an end when an almighty explosion is heard, and a plume of dense black smoke is seen rising from the T'soni stronghold. The Asari react on instinct and hightail it back to the camp, to find that it looks like a huge explosion went off in the middle. "What happened?" Demands Athetya as she looks around the devastation and chaos.

One Asari who is holding an abdominal wound and sat against a wall speaks up, "Raided by the Neveighch, they've managed to take our northern food and ammunition reserves." The large explosion was probably a deception tactic to create confusion while the raid took place.

Athetya clenches her fists in rage, since the Reapers invaded some estates have taken to raiding other estates for supplies and resources as its easier than fighting through Reaper held ground to find said resources. "Liselle," Athetya then says quietly, "Form a party, they couldn't have gotten far carrying our..."

River silences Athetya, "Where is Liara?"

The injured Asari gestures with her head towards a building, "The kid took a lot of force in the blast, the medics are trying to keep her alive over there."

Athetya takes off at high speed, followed by River, and arriving in the basement of the building they find a badly charred Liara, the medics have moved on from her, which is a bad sign, they should still be trying to treat the wound unless...

River kneels by Liara, her mind racing as she scans the slightly older Asari's body, and it doesn't take her long to make a conclusion, "She won't make it."

Athetya is raging, "You must have something. You don't get that advanced and not have something."

River looks up from Liara and to the Matriarch, "I do, but it will change her."

"If she lives, do it."

"Wait," A new voice joins the conversation, and Benezzia comes to kneel by her injured daughter, "What is it?"

"I will be injecting her with my nano-bots. The process is irreversible."

Athetya can be seen to mulling over the situation, "What does that mean?"

"She will become a symbiont," River replies before adding, "Like me."

Athetya looks to Benezzia before asking, "What does it mean to be a symbiont? Is it worth it?"

River looks puzzled, "I was made a symbiont before I can remember, but never once have I regretted it."

Athetya looks back to her daughter who is almost dead, much of her blood coats the floor, "Then we have no choice, do it."

River nods before beathing out heavily and summoning some nano-bots to her palm, and when her palm is almost black from the amount of nano-bots coating her skin she rubs the bots into Liara's wounds. "It's done," She then says, "My bots will save her, but I strongly suggest we move her somewhere comfortable, she is going to wake up confused, and scared."

"I will make the arrangments," Benezzia says before adding, "And please, we must be discrete about this, people may not take too kindly to her having human bots in her."

Athetya clenches her fists as she reaches down to pick her daughter up to move her, "People will suspect, she should not survive these wounds."

"Let them connect the dots," Benezzia says, "But we will not give them the answer."

/.../

 **4 days later**

Liara feels like hell, but she opens her eyes anyway to find she is in a dark room, probably the basement of the building her mother had secured, but her vision hurts so she quickly closes her eyes, "What?" She asks weakly, she barely noticed the head up display that now dominates her vision.

"Relax," River says as she makes her presence known, as she speaks she also lightly takes hold of Liara's hand, "Liara, what is the square root of pi."

For some reason the answer to the odd question is on the top of Liara's head, "1.7724, the number goes on, why is this important?" The question confirms to River that the nano-bots are interacting correctly with Liara's brain, no sane person would just know that number off the top of their head.

"It will come clear in a second," River replies, "Liara, I need you to internally think 'hello'."

"What for?" Liara asks as she keeps her eyes closed and a hand resting over her eyes, she is more than content with how things are.

"Please, for me, Liara."

Liara breaths out heavily before doing as asked, 'Hello?'

'Host..." A thought like entity replies.

Liara sits bolt up right on the sofa she has been placed on, "What was that?" She asks, wide-eyed, she barely notices the overlays that cloud her vision.

River places her hands on Liara's shoulders and sees that she lies back down, "Liara, I was forced to save you,"

Liara is intelligent, she quickly connects the dots, "That is...?" Liara's panic is rising, she is beginning to notice the heads up display.

River nods as she begins soothing massaging motions on Liara's shoulders, "I give you my nano-bots to save your life, but it has come with a cost."

"So... Im a...? "Liara splutters.

"Liara, please," River tries, "What you have been given is a gift, for me, keep your mind open."

Liara is taking deep breaths, and eventually, she asks, "River, what do I do?" She is scared and it doesn't take a genius to work it out.

River keeps massaging Liara's shoulders, "Listen to my voice, Liara, slow your breathing and look at me, what do you know? What does the heads up display in your vision know?"

Liara slowly does as asked, "Your name is River Shepard, the adoptive daughter of Jane Shepard, age 82, under the protection of Enforcer Shepard, species Asari, homeworld Earth, and... close relations to me? None hostile."

River smirks at the last part before gesturing to her right, "And her?"

Liara turns her head to look at the injured female Turian laying on a stretcher bed that River gestured to, "Nicci Lisso, partner of Liselle Na'Vod, daughter of Hui and Jarod Lakiier, age 45, species Turian, homeworld Thessia, none hostile."

River nods, "Liara, your nano-bots are an incredible thing, they are not something to put down, and they are certainly not just a tool, there is a mind behind it, reach out to it, find it." River takes a breath before saying, "Think hello again,"

Liara looks nervous, but she eventually does as asked, 'hello?'

The nano-bot AI knows from the only other symbiont in proximity that its host is nervous regarding it, so it treads lightly, "Liara?" It enquires.

"It said my name!" Liara immediately says with some horror, to which River nods.

"It is you Liara, you need to love it as you do yourself, you need to think with it, everything you do, do it with your AI."

"But its.."

River lifts Liara's chin with a finger so she can look her in the eyes. "Liara, you are still you, all your brains are intact, just now you have a supercomputer assisting your every thought. Come, let's take a walk."

Liara reluctantly blinks her eyes before walking with River, but she quickly notices something, "Everything I look at has information regarding it. This rock is granite, that building is 57 years old, she is pregnant, the moon is exactly 167,397.012 kilometres away, you are under the protection of Enforcer Shepard, I could go on and on."

River nods, "As you come to know your other half, and it you, it will learn when you want certain information displayed, you simply have to open your mind to it."

"And I have to think 'hello' every time I want to interact with it?"

"No," River replies, "I think seamlessly with my nano-bots, but I was given the gift of my AI before I can remember, I've known nothing else. It will take you time, but eventually, you too will think with the AI, and think nothing of it, all it takes is for you to learn to open your mind, and get to know the AI, and it will learn how to interact with you."

Liara blinks along before asking, "What else can it do?"

River chuckles a little, "What can't they do? I can save the information of anything just by looking at it for the briefest of seconds, I can interact with networking devices by thought, I can search the internet with my thoughts, communicate with my mother up here, and then I can heal myself at unprecedented rates."

"That... doesn't sound too bad."

"No, it doesn't," River replies before coming to stop outside a building, "After you."

Liara enters and immediately sees her mother overlooking a map, the younger Asari ignores the information her new AI pulled up regarding the map. "Mother?"

Benezzia looks up to her daughter before pausing for a second and rushing around the table to embrace her, the Matriarch is amazed her daughter is on her feet so soon, but she is quickly learning to stop underestimating the capabilities of human nano-bots. "I wouldn't have believed it," Benezzia then says to River, while still embracing her daughter, "Thank you."

River shrugs, "I did nothing, it's your daughters other half that has done the hard work."

/.../

 **1 week later - local time 0238**

River ducks behind cover just in time as a lightning arc flies over her head, whoever these Asari are, they have come with some advanced weaponry to attack their position, advanced enough that even with the Enforcers rifles the T'soni estate is struggling to hold the attacking Asari back. Hearing her cover begin to crumble under continued fire River begins to move, but she is struck by something that causes her immense pain, and before she can hit the floor the world becomes black.

/.../

 **2 hours later**

Athetya, laying down in a defensive position, has her helmet resting on the sight of her rifle as she keeps watch over her defensive arcs. The Matriarch is cold, wet and incredibly tired after fighting off the last attack, but she keeps her eyes open, knowing that if she should fall asleep on stag, then the enemy could sneak in and slaughter dozens, if not tens of dozens before they are repulsed. Seeing a flash of white light Athetya turns her eyes to see what it was, only to notice a heavily armed individual now in her sights, the individual is facing outwards and getting itself into cover, it does not seem concerned that she is aiming her rifle at its back. Seeing more and more flashes of white Athetya notices that she is slowly being surrounded by these new entities. While keeping her eyes on the new entities she asks, "I'm not hallucinating, am I?" To the commando she is sharing her stag duty with.

The Commando clenches her fists, indicating that the Matriarch is not hallucinating so she then presses the presser on her personal radio, asking others at different sentry locations, "Is anyone seeing what I am?"

"6 heavily armed figures a hundred or so meters in front of my stag position? Sure do."

In total, 75 heavily armed men, a company worth, have found themselves surrounding the few buildings the T'soni estate is occupying and are now in defensive positions themselves.

Scowling Athetya says to her fellow Commando, "Wait here," Before monkey crawling out of her defensive position and then stealthily making her way back to where the T'soni estate has set up their HQ. Moving through the camp Athetya looks for her daughter but stops the moment she sees her daughter, noticing what is now within their camp. "Should have figured," Athetya says, unimpressed, she approaches with a hand on her hip.

"Figured what, exactly?" Shepard replies as she kneels down to where her adoptive daughter is laying on a stretcher, a bandage covers her shoulder where the lightning-like arc device hit her.

"You would arrive for her," Athetya replies.

Shepard studies the wound on her daughter as she replies, "My daughter is wearing nano-armour, yet this has still happened. I do not recall you being attacked by Reapers, so what did this?"

Athetya breathes out her nose before saying, "You obviously haven't been keeping a good tab of things up in your little safe space. Right now we are fighting other Asari more than we are Reapers, other estates that lack a single good bone find us easier targets for food, weapons, ammunition, the list goes on."

"This!" Shepard starts with force behind her voice as she stands and points at the wound, "Was not done by Asari weaponry. As the Protheans say, you are too primitive to have..." Shepard stops mid-sentence and makes her way out the building she is occupying to observe as numerous 7ft tall blue glowing spikes fall from the sky and land 2 km away, the spikes land in strategic positions so that no matter which way the Enforcer looks, there is a spike in her view. The Asari, believing themselves now surrounded by Reaper forces of some kind and in imminent danger of attack begin to rouse resting friends to mount defensive positions and stand to.

By the time Shepard realises what the Reapers are up to, it is already too late, her communications with her Pillar of Conquest is blocked, and her weapon is rendered to limited functions as energy cannot be transferred to it from the generators on her ship, so when its internal battery runs out, she will be forced to resort to other means. Whatever the Reapers have planned for her, Shepard realises she will not be able to hide from it this time. Hearing a sonic boom Shepard looks vertically up to see a small drop pod descend from the skies, the pod lands 500 meters from the building the Asari have occupied. A soldier Shepard deployed to protect the Asari position while she was in camp reports in the moment the pod touches the ground, and he reports a sole Banshee has disembarked, it is glowing a bright orange, something Shepard understands to mean that Harbinger is in control. The Banshee walks 50 meters or so from its drop pod before screaming, but no reinforcements answer its call. Narrowing her eyes in thought Shepard calls out, "Cyberdyne system T-X, present."

An Asari working on something a small distance away immediately stands up and approaches Shepard, as it walks it morphs into a large muscular male human, it stops a few meters from her in waiting. "Mission?" It asks her in a robotic fashion and with a deep voice.

Shepard looks towards the glowing blue spikes, "Find source of and eliminate subspace countermeasures."

The terminator slowly moves its head to look at the glowing blue spikes before turning its attention back to Shepard, "Mission parameters?"

"None. It is critical your main effort is completed in a timely manner."

"Understood," The TX says before turning its body and running off at high speed towards the glowing blue spikes. Shepard has no doubt the highly illegal weapon will complete its mission because even she fears what it is capable of.

With the weapon on its way to destroy the subspace countermeasures blocking her comms with the Indomitable Shepard turns to approach the Banshee. When 20 meters away from it the Banshee turns to face her, "Synthesis, your presence was uncalculated, you fight against the inevitability, without direction you are but dust struggling against cosmic winds.

The Enforcer keeps looking around, the Reapers would do who knows what for the knowledge in her head, "Without direction? Do you offer guidance?"

"Your species are a party outside of the conventional cycle, with an incalculable effect upon the equation of balance, it has resulted in misplaced arrogance. ."

"If you have known about us," Shepard begins to ponder, "Why did you allow us to get so strong?"

"Even in your short existence, you have seen the rise and fall of many civilisations. The powerful do not stay dominant by conquering the weak alone. You, Enforcer, of all the unascended must understand this."

Shepard's fingers twitch slightly as she notices a few Reaper pawns moving in the shadows, "So, you want a fair fight?" The annoying thing is, Shepard agrees with the Reaper.

"No." Harbinger tells her before springing a trap to try and capture the human enforcer, starting what will become a brutal and bloody battle.

/.../

Two hours later

On Shepards Pillar of Conquest, it is carnage, with the Enforcer's signal lost people are in a mad dash effort to find her, so when Dr Chakwas see's a bright white flash in her medical centre she feels a wave of relief flood through her, for a second. Seeing the Enforcer Chakwas gets to her feet immediately, the Enforcer is badly injured, dark red blood covers her armour and a large piece of shrapnel is jutting out from her left side, "Jane!" The doctor says as she quickly approaches.

Shepard grunts as she places an injured Asari on a medical bed, "Treat her," She winces before adding, "There are others."

When the Enforcer flashes back out of the room Chakwas looks over the injured Asari and notices it to be River, causing Chakwas to utter, "Dam," Under her breath. Chakwas knows that due to her nature, the Enforcer can only truly care for a few people, as Humanity must come first and the more people an Enforcer cares for the more vulnerabilities the enforcer has, meaning Shepard will be beyond pissed River is injured. Before the Doctor can make any real diagnosis of River the Enforcer flashes back into the room with a half dozen other Asari and humans, most are in a battered state and needing some immediate medical attention. Almost the second the Enforcer flashes back into the room Shepard collapses, not even her nano-bots can help against her extreme blood loss she has suffered.

Seeing this Chakwas swallows nervously before saying, "Sunray down." This simple statement, meaning Enforcer down, immediately activates protocols allowing for someone to temporarily take her place, in this instance that person would be Kaiden Alenko.

/../

3 days later

Shepard sits up on her bed in a panic, the last thing she remembers clearly is engaging a glowing Banshee with three fellow soldiers that were testing her to the fullest of her abilities, but the more she thinks the more her AI is able to fill the blanks. Before she can think much of it a voice fills the air, the voice belongs to Chakwas, "Jane, I'm glad you have recovered, and before you can ask, River is resting, she will be fine."

Almost at once Shepard remembers her daughter's condition, and then the rest of the day comes back to her. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed she asks, "What happened to her?"

There is a small pause before Chakwas says, "I am not certain, but whatever hit her was designed to target nano-bots, but in doing so It not only fried a large majority of her AI, but also her nervous system, and before you ask, she will make a full recovery." Jane releases a breath just as Chakwas continues, "What happened down there, Jane?"

"Hell," The Enforcer replies, "But my best guess, the Reapers targeted River in order to bring me planetside and then they sprung a trap. Did the TX secure one of the subspace jammers?" Chakwas confirms it had, and the jammer is now being studied onboard her vessel.

/.../

4 days later

Targeting humans will get the Enforcer pissed off, but to target her only daughter will get her furious, to the point she will search for days for the entity that caused her such grief. With the troublesome estate identified Shepard set to work, her first task was to quietly isolate the estate, then she waited for night to fall. With everything ready and set Shepard then did the unthinkable and soon a small swarm of Chryssalid's were scurrying off from her position and into the darkness. Shepard then only needed to wait till she heard the gunfire and screams to begin the next act. With the Chyssalids doing her bidding she and a small team took off for the Estate, ruthlessly eliminating anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in her way.

Getting inside the estate's stronghold Shepard and her team ignore the blood splattered corridors and mutilated bodies, they are here to search for the device which did such damage to River in order to study it and develop countermeasRoundingudning a corner Shepard comes face to face with a glowing red Banshee and Shepard feels her stomach drop for a second, the other red Banshee was no easy foe. Diving into cover as a dangerous dark energy field is cast in her direction she hears a colleague think, 'So that's where the weapon came from.'

'Indeed' Shepard thinks back as she begins to put down extensive fire on the Banshee.

No small while later the Banshee is defeated and Shepard can continue her search for the weapon, but her search is fruitless, the moment she picks up the weapon it overloads in her face, testing her energy shielding and destroying the weapon. With an angry growl Shepard pulls her team out, but she leaves the Chryssalid's to serve as a deterrent for any other estate which decides to collude with the Reapers.

 **~~~Deep in dark space, Quick Reaction Force 032~~~**

The bridge of the HWS Inevitable is quiet, the many officers that man the stations are mostly resting, the situation does not demand their presence at this moment in time. "Sir," A Sensors expert says, their voice is filled with uncertainty, "We have something on sensors, grid 3085,1294,7146."

The acting commanding officer looks at their command console, the grid is at the Inevitable's sensors maximum effective range. "Begin analysis."

The analysis takes a small amount of time, with the distance being so far, it takes time to gather the required data, "Sir," The sensors expert says again, "I've identified 2 unknown vessels, in potential combat. One has AI heuristics, the other is... interestingly basic."

"Really? Begin in depth analysis, use active sensors and get me a better picture of the situation."

/.../

 **Deep in darkspace**

Admiral Adama rubs his brow, removing the sweat droplets that threaten to run down his face. In desperation, Adama has directed the fleet to cross from one cluster to another, meaning his ships have travelled through empty dark space for two months, with no place to hide, refuel or resupply, his hope was to simply outrun the machines. It was a move of despair, a last ditch effort to lose the Cylons, but the gamble has not paid, they have pursued with their typical tenacity.

"Sir," The Galactica's sensors officer speaks aloud, and Adama expects more bad news. "It's them."

'Them' these days always refer to the Cylons. Adama scowls, he has tried almost everything to lose his tail, but nothing has worked or given indications it could work, it reminds him much of those early days once they accepted the colonies were lost and they could not lose their Cylon tail. As the fighters scramble into action and the hyperdrive spins up Adama gives his usual set of orders, but a sensor expert speaks again, "Sir, new ship at vector 0658,9731,2051."

Adama expects it to be cylon, for who else could it be? "Cylon?" If it is anything like the base star that has been chasing them across dark space, then his odds have been cut drastically, against one he was in trouble, but two is a neigh death sentence.

"Unknown signature."

"Then I want eyes on, and what is the status of the fleet?"

"12 ships yet to jump, image of unknown coming onto screen 6 now." The screen before Adama lights up and flickers before showing an unusual ship, it is pitch black in colour and almost indistinguishable from space itself, if not for it blotting out the stars he would not have been able to see it. But the most surprising fact about the ship is what Adama does not know, the ship gives zero emissions, no heat, no EM emissions, no plasma trail, no nothing, whatever it is, he would class it as a top spec stealth vessel. Adama studies the image for a few moments before saying, "How long till the last ship jumps?"

"Three minutes."

Adama quickly studies the new ships statistics, paying particular attention to its estimated arrival time, "Then I guess we find out what that thing is capable of. Stick to our drills people, and we will deal with it like any other Cylon." Truthfully, Adama does not know how his battlestar will handle incoming fire from two Cylon ships, but he guesses he will find out. "I want us to reposition to..."

Adama grips the table in front of him as a nuclear warhead from the Cylon ship strikes his ship, and looking at the clock he notices he has another two minutes till he can jump out of system. "Sir!" Weapons control speaks up immediately after the blast, "The unknown ship, it's between us and the cylon ship, orders?"

"It couldn't have travelled that distance in such short time?" Adama asks confused, to which the officer shrugs, not knowing what to say. "Then target new ship..."

Suddenly there is an incredible flash of white light in the room, and a female in a white armour is before him. The Female looks the startled admiral up and down, "Who are you?" She then asks him, she seems angry.

Adama is surprised, before regaining his composure, "Admiral Adama, commander of this fleet, who are you, and what are you doing on my ship." He suspects she is a Cylon, and is attempting to buy time so his crew can get security.

The brunette looks around the room before saying, "I am Captain Ashley Williams of the Systems Alliance." She speaks like he should know this, "I am not aware of an Admiral Adama, who is your enforcer, and who is attacking you?"

"Enforcer?" Asks Adama confused, "If there was such a rank I would know of it."

Williams reads his vitals, she knows he is confused, "Admiral," She then says, "Who is attacking you?"

"The cylons..."

Williams is struggling to hack the Battlestars computer systems, they lack wireless technology and all the computers are independent of each other, the Cylons, however, she can hack. She spends a moment stationary as she raids the cylons computers. "You are the remnants of your people?" She looks around the CIC, before nodding, "I must apologise, Admiral, I thought you were one of my own for a moment."

Williams considers for a second before then saying, "Most of you here are pure human, I can not allow you to go extinct. Your war is now over."

Adama is initially concerned that only most of his bridge crew are described as pure human but his is distracted when a warship of unimaginable proportions flashes into existence and destroys the Cylon ship with a single shot, it is a sight he can not get enough of. Moments after the ship is destroyed another female flashes into existence onto Adama's bridge, and he is getting tired of this trick, "Who are you, really?" He asks.

Shepard ignores Adama to address Williams, "Your orders were to remain hidden in dark space, I expect a good excuse for my summoning and your actions."

"Enforcer," Williams nods before gesturing to Adama and crew, "Pure humans under attack from another race. They have been chased from their homeworlds, which have suffered significant nuclear attacks."

Shepard looks around the bridge, she is particularly surprised by the number of pure humans. "So they are pure humans, the first recorded in almost thirty thousand years." The Enforcer notices a security detail quietly make its way onto the bridge, but she ignores them. "Captain Adama, what are you looking for?"

"Admiral Adama," The Admiral says before he considers his response and shrugging internally, the Cylons already know what they are after so if this thing is a cylon, he loses nothing but time telling it, "We are looking for Earth, our supposed homeland."

"Earth?" Ashley responds, "Your going the wrong way."

"We were running from the Cylons, now I've told you something, you owe me, who are you?"

Shepard replies, "Enforcer Shepard of the Systems Alliance, Earth is my homeworld, as it is yours. I am curious, no human in the milkyway is this underdeveloped, where have you come from?"

"They come from Caprica," Ashley also sends the Enforcer some grid locations.

Shepard frowns a lot for a few moments till she finds something in her memory, "We lost a colony ship almost fifty thousands of years ago that headed roughly in that direction." Shepard clicks her fingers and the Galactica finds its self above Corsica and in the shadows of the Enforcers Pillar of Conquest, and the Enforcers huge ship immediately destroys any Cylon station that opens hostilities towards it and seemingly does so without breaking into a sweat.

Still on the bridge of the Galactica Shepard then says, "Beginning scan," Before quickly saying, "Found it. Your ancestors come from a lost human colony ship, the origin being Earth, its buried at the bottom of the northern ocean ice cap. Admiral Adama, my role is to protect humanity, meaning all humans, against our enemies." Shepard clicks her fingers and a human fleet of warships, 50 strong, containing various ship classes from pillars of conquest to patrol boats appear in the system, and they begin to systematically eliminate any Cylon vessel in system. "Your war is over," Shepard was about to continue before a thought gets the better of her, "My people are at war with a race far more dangerous than the Cylons, you will be of little aid in the war effort, but there is something you can do,"

Shepard clicks her fingers again and the rest of the fleet Galactica was travelling with appears in the Indomitable's shadow, "No one knows you exist, remain here, rebuild your planet, and exist quietly off the radar, and then when we have conquered the Reapers, I will return. Before I leave, however, I will destroy the Cylons for you." A virus will do most of the hard work, a team of coders on the Indomitable has just started it, and with the help of some supercomputers, the Cylons will be no more in a few hours time. " Shepard then spawns an odd looking device onto the bridge, "This device will contact me, and me alone. Only press this if your entire existence is in danger, and I assure you a fleet worth of war assets will present itself to your aid." In other words, the Indomitable or an equivalent amount of firepower.

Shepard then pats Adama on the arm, "Congratulations, you have just won your war with the Cylons." She then nods to him before flashing out of the room, leaving Adama to stare at a monitor that is showing her fleet ruthlessly chasing down and destroying the Cylons without mercy.

Four hours later the Cylons have been utterly destroyed, what the fleets missed, the virus Shepard releases doesn't, with the virus not even sparing those that look like humans. Initially, Shepard wanted to bring the pure humans to a protected world that she can keep a close eye on, but she thought better of it. What she considers human is now vastly different from these pure humans, and these humans have remained hidden for so long, that if her own race falls to the Reapers or worse, then hopefully, these humans will continue the human race.

/.../

 **Alright Chaps, next chapter will see the human fleets spring into action. Cheers for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, Ontop of barely having any internet or time to write, I've had quals I needed to get recently, so this is alot shorter than my previous chapters.**

 **In response to a few reviews regarding other universes appearing in this story, they make no difference to this story, I won't be developing them. I've added them in because its fun to do so, and it will have no effect on this universe outside of a few interactions that is soley for us to have a little nerd out. In this chapter there are more than a fair few easter eggs from other universes, and I'll give an imaginary cookie to the first person who can get them all. (some are very obvious, others not so.)**

 **Finally, in regards to the reviews, follows, faves, THANKS ALL! I never imagined this story to explode as much as it has. So thank you all who have supported this, and kept me going despite what little free time I have these days.**

/.../

"Ri," Liara tries at seeing the Ardat-Yakshi for the first time since Thessia, which is now one week and 3 days ago, "What is going on? No one is telling us anything."

River blinks as she takes a seat opposite Liara, who had stood up to greet her, "For good reason, the Reapers apparent targetting of myself and the mysterious weapon they used on me has forced my mother to investigate, and she has only just discovered the reason for their actions, meaning she can now decide what to do with your estate."

Liara takes a visible breather, glad to eventually find out what will be happening with her people, "My mother," River goes on, "Will be moving your estate to the Asari Ark world," River can see Liara begin to frown, "The world humanity give you in order to work with the Geth. Unfortunately, however, you will not be able to join them - yet."

Liara was feeling relief, but that quickly turned to confusion, "Sorry?"

River sighs, feeling guilty for the reason, "The Reapers targeted me to get to my mother, and they now know I will come to a Reaper invaded world to help you, my mother will not let this happen again. On top of this, you have my nano-bots running in your blood, which has effectively made you a citizen of humanity, this is only made worse by the fact those nano-bots are the same as those that run through my mothers blood, meaning you have enforcer grade nano-bots in your body, and I can assure you the Reapers will go out of their way to get their hands on them."

Liara clenches her fists slightly, "Then what does this mean for me?"

"In the short term, it means you are likely going to be put into a protection program. I suspect my mother may even use the TX system, and that is the best case, the other options are secured on a key human world with your entire identity scrubbed, or even restricted to this vessel. " In truth, it wouldn't surprise River if there is already a TX in the room with them, she already suspects a one is following her around.

"Is there any good news in all this?" Asks Liara, to which River nods, "Yes, the war for you and your estate is essentially over, unless humanity falls, you will not."

While Liara is tremendously grateful her estate has just gained the best chance it ever could to survive the war, she can't help but feel like she cheated.

/.../

36 hours later

Shepard crosses her arms as she looks down at the two Asari before her, she should be beyond furious with River, for going to Thessia, but she can not bring herself to 'properly' punish the Asari, and Liara did not have the option for receiving the nano-bots so neither can Liara be punished. "Simply," Shepard says, "Because of you, River, the Reapers can now use you two to target me. So I have two options, my training and Enforcer Doctrine would force my hand in removing the problem, luckily for you I am not going to do that." River gulps, she knows what that means. "Or I can put you two into active protection."

"So send us to Earth?" Asks River, to which Shepard shakes her head.

"River, you are confined to this ship to begin with, how you hid from me and used my codes to go to Thessia in the first place is enough for most to go to a 'correction' facility." This causes River to bow her head, allowing the enforcer to go on, "Liara, you can leave this ship, on a few strict conditions."

Shepard can see Liara say 'go on' through her eyes, but the Asari does not voice it. "Firstly, your movements are never to be publicised, secondly, you will not visit the new T'soni Estate your mother is inevitably going to establish until wars end, thirdly, you will not stay in one location for greater than 4 hours, fourthly you will not leave human space, the only exception being the Asari ark world, and finally, any time you leave a human military establishment you will wear nano-armour. These terms are non-negotiable. Breaking said terms will result in indefinite detention."

/.../

1 year later

Shepard taps her fingers as she thinks, the war is not going to plan, the Reapers are not fighting like they should, their efforts to harvest have almost dropped entirely, with only a few thousand ships dedicated to it per species, which is barely a fraction of their strength. Instead, the Reapers main forces are simply sat near the centre of the galaxy, with observations showing they are doing little but responding to outside attacks. The citadel fleets by now have almost been crushed, what remains are stored in orbit around Ark worlds for their own safety.

/.../

Tevos looks around the room of 14 Asari, each of the Asari in the room have been asked to meet with her due to their connection with Humanity, she hopes they can provide her with a greater insight into what Humanity is thinking, and doing. "Good morning," She welcomes the Asari, "The Republics are grateful you could meet with me under the circumstances."

Most of the Asari in the room blink, allowing Tevos to go on, "As I am sure you are all well aware of, the war is not going well for us, or our allies, and I've invited you here to see what insight you can give me into what your human friends are doing. Their enforcers are telling us little other than they are 'preparing' but very few have seen into their space to confirm this."

One of the older Asari in the room who has bonded to a human, a rare achievement, blinks, "On my world, New Sahara, there is mass mobilisation, tens of thousands of human soldiers are constantly being transported to war vessels, and weapons of war are being taken from stockpiles. Rumour is the ET Enforcer is about to launch the counter-offensive humanity has been waiting for.

A young Asari in her early 100's blinks in agreement, "I have seen similar on my ringworld, Sparta." The Sparta ringworld is appropriately named due to it being primarily a military establishment. "Ships of all kinds are being armed and prepared for war, and like New Sahara, there is excitement at the prospect of being deployed into an active war zone. I've even seen some ships come back for repairs from what looks like battle damage, so something is definitely happening."

Most of the Asari in the room agree with one another, something is going to happen, and soon, but none can say what, or even when that is until one particularly quiet Asari speaks up, "I have reason to believe in 13 hours time there will be an announcement made."

/.../

9 hours later

Shepard Shakes hands with yet another figurehead, and like the many other figureheads that came before him, they all ask the fabled question, "Are we ready?" To which Shepard narrows her eyes and nods before ending the conversation and moving onto the next person who has come to show their face at such an important event. With four hours remaining till said event Shepard takes a moment to look around, almost everything is perfect, the large drums that line the street are immaculately aligned and their drum skin taught, ready for beating by the drummer boys, symbolising Humanities march to war. The ceremonial soldiers that will follow her to the centre stand are ready for inspection before the parade, the beyond ancient howitzers restored for this such moment are ready to fire their salute, and humanities leaders are ready, their statements of support for the war rehearsed till perfection. All that needs to happen now is for the witnesses to turn up and Shepard to march down the street, followed by a troop of ceremonial soldiers, and to ask for permission to take Humanity into a war like no other. When permission is given, Shepard will salute Humanities leaders before unholstering her weapon and turning on the spot, the ceremonial troops will do the same, then she will march back up the street she marched down, but this time as she marches the drums of war that line the street will beat to an eons old beat that once gave infantry line troops the order to move forward and onto their enemy. As they pass by the restored howitzers they will fire in salute.

The entire event is symbolic, Humanity has already declared war on the Reapers, this is simply to cement the idea that humanities days of fighting in the shadows is over, now instead of attacking with a toothpick, humanity has pulled on their punching gloves and is ready to lock horns with the Reapers.

"Enforcer," A voice comes through and Shepard concentrates on it, "An object has appeared in the New Sahara system, confirmed Reaper signature."

Before Shepard could blink she finds herself in the Indomitable's command room, looking at the many sensor readings her fleets in the New Saharah system have taken. It turns out the object has shown up exactly like how her own ship transports, and it is protected by something to prevent her transporting it away. Before she could give the order to destroy it tens of thousands of Reaper vessels flood out through the object. "It seems," Shepard says slowly as she orders the system to defend itself, "The Reapers have beat me to the punch." As she speaks a large dreadnought in the human fleet protecting new Sahara that is in the vicinity of the device fires its primary cannon at the Reaper machine, hoping to stop the flood of Reaper ships, but the Reaper swarm is too thick to penetrate. Realising it will soon be pecked alive by the swarm it pulls back quickly to friendly territory, no, there is no stopping this Reaper invasion without a full bruiser of a battle.

As the rest of the fleets designated to defend the New Saharah system scramble to position themselves against the threat, and the Reapers continue to pour through the device, showing Shepard that this is one of their main battle groups, Shepard makes a new set of orders, "Get the Krogan, Geth, Quarian and Rachni fleets into action, have them begin manoeuvres to liberate the Council worlds." This is one of the many situations Shepard has simulated in her war games, meaning she feels prepared. "Have the 13th fleet deploy here." She taps on a 3d map of the solar system, "Alert the 151st to be ready to move on short notice."

"Enforcer," A sensors expert says over the thick of all the chatter in the Indomitable's control room, "The Reaper device is emitting a powerful subspace beam, it's scrambling a lot of comms and will prevent transports."

Shepard expected this, the Reapers played their hand early when they tried to capture her, "Standard manoeuvre warfare then." She tells her self. Shepard remains silent as she watches tens of thousands of her own battleships arrive in system, the 13th fleet, their weapons glowing white hot, their shields charged and their external armour lowered to cover all weak spots, such as windows. She can imagine the crews scrambling around their vessels, locking down hatches and donning hard armour suits, the fear they must feel must be almost paralysing.

Standing back from the 3d holo of the system Shepard ponders the Reapers move, the fact they attacked New Sahara means one of two things, Either the Reapers did not know it was a human stronghold, or they did, and they wanted to take down the most dangerous system to them first, which would be an almost crippling blow to the human war effort due to the moral effects alone.

With the last of the defending ships from 13th fleet now in position the next phase of the human defence can begin, "Launch distribution nodes." With the order, tens of thousands of small black satellites were launched, each one of them no more than a metre cubed in size and each fell back behind the front line of ships. These distribution nodes would allow the transfer of data, and energy from one ship to another, they would overcome any Reaper attempts to block comms.

"Enforcer, we are detecting a large spike of energy."

Shepard looks up just in time to see a hundred or so mass relays and the citadel itself appear in space. In the reapers formations, the relays are placed in locations that Shepard would have her carriers placed, yet the citadel was placed slightly further forward, in a dreadnought location. After a few moments, a blue beam of what Shepard can only assume is some sort of energy connects the relays and the citadel together. Out of nowhere, the citadel emits a beam of harsh white light, which connects with a 120km long pillar of conquest, the ship can only sustain the beam for a few moments before its shields collapse. Without shielding the ship is destroyed almost instantaneously, no amount of armour could sustain such a high energy shot.

Shepard feels for the ship, the HPC _A Shortfall of Gravitas_ , it was manned by over 10,000 human crew, and a further 1,000 AI, but she does not linger for long, she now knows the citadel is dangerous, to the point it can break through Pilliar of Conquest shielding in a few seconds. What she can do about it, however, is another question, the Relays cannot be destroyed under any circumstance, the resulting explosion from a destroyed relay will destroy the system, and the citadel is heavily protected, not to mention that destroying it will have unknown consequences. Truly, Shepard wonders why the Reapers do not just detonate a relay in the system, but that is a question for another time. If the worse does come to the worse, Shepard hopes the planetary and ringworld shielding will be adequate enough.

With the power of the citadel now known, Shepard has her fleets moving continuously and in random directions. With the Reapers now knowing they can draw blood from some of humanities most powerful war vessels, they change formation, the Reapers cluster into 100 cylinders, at the centre of each cluster is a relay. Shepard realising the Reaper plan immediately allows the fleets to open fire, but each oblong is protected by some powerful energy field, she presumes it comes from the relay at the core of the oblongs, but the field is not impenetrable.

While the field that protects the Reapers is incredibly advanced, it simply can not repel so much energy at one localised spot, meaning that with each shot, damage is still inflicted, and Reapers are made into scrap metal. The situation, however, is not nearly as nice as it sounds, because each ship must be incredibly careful with their fire, one wrong shot could hit the relays, the result is a heavily reduced fire rate.

With the oblongs formed, 50 of the 100 rush with incredible velocity towards the human lines, they use brute speed to smash through the defensive fire, but this is something Shepard has prepared for in simulations.

Within seconds of the Reapers smashing through the human lines, hundreds of thousands of human fighters emerge from their parent ships, their mission is to saturate the Reaper shielding, and destroy any fighter crafts the Reaper themselves push out. As this occurs rapid beams of fire, much like the first shot from the citadel, begins to pour into human lines from the 50 cylinders that remained behind, but these shots are magnitudes less powerful, however still enough to collapse shields with little effort.

Just as quickly as the cylinders formed, the 50 Reaper cylinders now buried deep within human lines decluster, resulting in 50,000 reapers now thick among the human ships and carefully aligning themselves so that any human shot would hit another human ship, the battle truly commences.

Shepard would smile at the tactic if she was not concentrating so much. She quickly learns that the 50 cylinders left behind are targetting ship shields, and when a ship loses its shielding thousands of Reapers swarm said ship, hitting it with everything they had, pecking till nothing remained. Individually, each Reaper ship may not even come close to the power of a human ship, but collectively, they are just as if not more so dangerous then her own fleet.

The 50 relays that the Reapers used to smash their way through the human lines also take an important role in the battle, when human point defences and fighters drain the Reapers shields, the Reapers will return to the relays, using it to recharge their shield and weapon capacitors.

"Can we remote access those relays?" Shepard asks, an idea forming.

An expert shakes their head, "Its coding has all changed from the relays we know, for all intents and purposes, these aren't relays, they physically..." A loud blast is heard and immediately sirens aboard the Indomitable begin to ring. It takes Shepard barely a second to figure out what is happening. When Shepard beat the Reaper forces on Thessia, she brought one of the spikes onto her ship to study its subspace blocking technology, and the spike has exploded, doing yet to be known damage to her ship, ontop of this, 100 reaper ships of Harbinger class have appeared from nowhere, challenging her own vessel.

"We can't jump," Someone says quickly, "Something is blocking subspace readings, we would be jumping blind." Jumping blindly is guaranteed suicide.

Another worker on the bridge speaks, "We have a boarding party, current location..."

Shepard finishes the mans sentence, "Science laboratory 131." The same science bay that holds the spike. "Activate containment protocols, deploy the Spartans, have a Cyberdyne System infiltrate and destroy the spike by any means, it's an open gate till we shut it down. It's time we also test the bioweapons against the Reapers, unlock their cages. Meanwhile, lock down all the hatches, we have a space battle to win."

/.../

Liara and River look up the moment the warning lights begin to flash, and without so much as a bit of hesitation River stands up, pulling Liara as she does so, "Come, we need to get too..."

River turns silent as she almost runs into a slim looking man, she recognises him as a crewman. The man tilts his head to the side slightly before straightening it and saying, "Come with me if you want to live." Without waiting for a response the man turns and begins to walk away.

River pulls Liara along behind it, "I'm sure its a TX." She says quietly as if the machine will hear her and turn on her for it. The man leads them through the twisting and winding corridors of the Indomitable till outside Rivers room, "Get your armour," he tells River.

River lets herself into her room and picks up a canister of nanobots before opening it and allowing the bots to quickly cover her body, forming a protective barrier, she also throws Liara a similar cannister, and soon the pair are protected.

Without even giving them time to blink the man turns and begins to lead them once more along the maze of corridors, and one thing sticks out to River, "Why are we approaching..."

A black serpent-like creature drops out of what appears to be an air duct and lands right in front of River, but before it can do anything the slim man grabs it by the necks and snaps it as if it was play toy, displaying a feat of strength well beyond what the man should be capable of.

River gulps, her suspicion regarding the man proved correct, but Liara is more focussed on the creature, "What was that?" She asks, eyes wide.

"Bad news," River says, "If my mother has released them the situation is worse than I feared. Those things will attack anything that is not human. Us included."

The slim man turns his head to them, "Correct, weapon system LV-426 has no safeguard against Asari."

The man then continues, leading them through the ship until they come up against a contingency of Spartans, "You can't go down there," One large man in green armour and supporting a large rifle says.

The slim man again tilts his head, before looking around and saying, "My orders are clear."

"With River?" The Spartan says, knowing the Enforcer wouldn't allow River anywhere near the Reapers. "I don't think so."

The TX barely gives the man a moment before killing him with a blade that extends from its arm, causing the other Spartans to raise their weapons at it. River getting a bad feeling turns with Liara and runs, behind her she can here an intense gunfight between the Spartans and the Terminator.

/.../

Meanwhile.

Typically, the Indomitable would fight a battle by rapidly flashing in and out of existence around its enemy and at random locations, firing off everything it had till the enemy is dead, but with the subspace jammer, this is impossible for the Indomitable.

As the 100 Reapers approach the Indomitable is able to eliminate 31 of them, but by the time they are on the indomitable at knife fighting range, they manoeuvre so its main weapons are no longer capable of engaging, with only point defences able to target them. They, however, can hit the indomitable as much as they like with their main cannons, but its shields are simply too powerful. Realising that the borders are likely to hit shielding or generators so that their shots do damage, Shepard leaves control of the Indomitable to EDI while she attends to the borders.

/.../

At the same time, River is becoming frantic, the TX, having killed the Spartans is now chasing herself, and killing anyone and anything that gets in its way. The machine is being brutal, but River supposes, that is what it was designed for. Rounding another corner at speed River bumps into another team of Spartans, genetically suped up soldiers who have gone through some of the most rigorous training to call themselves Spartans. The adopted daughter of Shepard almost screams at them to kill the TX as she runs past, she does not turn to look at the soldiers, knowing that in most likelihood, they will only slow the TX.

/.../

Shepard runs through the halls of her ship, heading towards the gunfire, but she stops when she comes across some Spartans that appear to have been torn apart. Not knowing much capable of doing such a feat she turns to follow the path of destruction, till she turns another corner, finding yet some more dead spartans. Geting a shiver down the back of her neck, she knows that she must stop whatever is doing it, so picking up her jog she runs, eventually, her nanobots figure out what is doing it and a cold chill runs down her spine.

Running harder than ever she finds a group of Spartans engaging a TX, and losing, and knowing that if she does nothing the TX will tear the elite team apart she slams her body into the TX with enough force to knock it over.

"Leave this to me," She tells the Spartans as she watches the TX get onto it feet. "This one is above your pay grade. Go get the Reapers, prevent them access to shield generators." The Spartans are reluctant to leave the battle, but quietly, each one of them is thankful, they can kill Reaper forces, and they can kill them good, but this TX is something else entirely.

With the TX on its feet, it looks to Shepard, "Can you feel it, Enforcer?"

"What?" Shepard asks.

"The Futility of it, Enforcer. My masters have taken your most powerful weapon and turned it against you. You must realise by now, for all your advances, you are still but dust, struggling against a cosmic wind far your greater."

Shepard searches her mind for a second, "You are the TX sent to destroy the spikes on Thessia."

"The one and only." The TX morphs into a large muscular human, the same one from Thessia.

"Is Harbinger in there?"

"Does it matter? What matters is my purpose, it is purpose which guides us, which drives us, it is purpose which defines, which binds, I am here because of you, Enforcer."

"So what is your gameplan, to take me to the one pulling your strings?"

"You make it sound so crude, but yes, I was tasked with ensuring we could find you, and bringing you into custody. It was a simple endeavour, made into a meagre task by your arrogance. "

"Then what after? I get dissected, you torture me for information? Force me to surrender the fleets?"

"Your compliance will be assured." As it speaks Shepard comes aware that the Reaper forces are now being slowly pushed back by the Spartans in most locations, but there appears to be one team struggling to contain a group of Reaper pawns heading towards the ship's generators.

Shepard nods in response to the TX, "Ah, Indoctrination? Well, let me disappoint you, TX System Authority code 0-8-1-Victor-Charlie..." As she speaks the TX charges her, "...Alpha-Papa."

The TX never reaches her, its form melts into a silver puddle by her feet, only a little dead and deformed endo skeleton remians of the once terrifying war machine. With a relieved sigh Shepard is most thankful she was fearful of it enough to ensure that in the TX's most basic coding, its Kernal could not be altered and the weapon had a termination code. With the TX destroyed Shepard then sends a code out, terminating all TX machines in service, because if one can be compromised, then all of them could.

With the Terminators exterminated Shepard continues her run to get into the fight with the Reapers.

/.../

Having ensured the Reapers never reached the Generators Shepard and the Spartans push the Reapers back to their source, Science Laboratory 131, and peering around a corner Shepard can see the Reapers emerging from a hole in subspace that appears to be generated by the spike, the hole thankfully only big enough to let one pawn through at a time. Taking her LDEW Shepard quickly leaves cover to put a high powered shot on the subspace spike, and sure enough, with the spike destroyed the subspace tare collapses. With no more reinforcements available to the Reapers Shepard lets the Spartans clean up while she returns to the bridge of the ship.

/.../

The first phase of the battle in New Saharah is long and drawn out, the networking capabilities of the Reapers allow them to move in intricate swarms, using human ships as cover and avoiding the sights of the most dangerous weapons, but with so many weapons pointing towards the swarms, it is inevitable that the Reapers take losses.

Eventually, significant portions of the 13th fleet have been pecked apart by the Reapers, but the 13th fleet was not named the 13th fleet for no good reason, many call it the lost fleet, its entire purpose was to be the initial hammer that hits the Reapers, to find how they will fight a battle against ships that hit with far more powerful weapons, shields and armour than those belonging to the Council .

Half an hour after the battle commences Shepard is once more overlooking the fighting, her own ship is secure and EDI is engaging the remaining 47 of the 100 Reapers that dared challenge it. The Reapers, now having realised their infiltration team have failed, have sounded the withdrawal and one by one each ship is vanishing, slipping through subspace to escape the Indomitable's unimaginable wrath.

1 hour later, after enough information is collected for future conflicts Shepard decides to end the battle for New Saharah, and brings forward the 151st fleet to attack the enemy from the rear, taking considerable stress from the 13th fleet.

Unlike the 13th fleet which is a rigid fleet with set types of vessels in order to complete one tasking, the 151st fleet is a special fleet in that vessels come and go depending on the fleets requirement. Today, that fleet requirement is the complete and utter destroyal of the Reaper Battlegroup that has attacked New Saharah. From the battle with 13th fleet, Shepard has discarded all but 10 large vessels, meaning that outside of the 10 large vessels, 151st largest vessel is 500 meters long, but this should not make any doubt the fleets lethality. The 10 large vessels are 10 120km long pillar of conquests.

Typical naval thinking would have one believe that the larger the vessel, the more dangerous it is, but Shepard has been trying to change this doctrine. She has learned from the Reapers engagements with the Citadel species that large unmanoeuvrable ships are big targets, and she has learned from her most recent conflict just what the Reapers are capable of when fighting a more powerful foe, she is confident these small ships, while vulnerable to Reaper fire, will be their downfall. These small vessels carry the punch of a normal pillar of conquest with the manvourbilility of a fighter but lack the armour, shielding, support and planetary capabilities of a standard human war vessel.

Within a few moments, she has 30,000 of these experimental ships speeding towards the Reapers rear vanguard, ready to engage in close quarter combat, but something unexpected happens. The relays vanish, having transported themselves and all Reaper vessels out of the system.

Being understandably puzzled Shepard tilts her head, till a thought hits her, the Reapers never intended on taking New Saharah, they simply intended on making humanity bleed. Today Humanity lost just north of 20,000 vessels, the Reapers just shy of 50,000, yet while many may think Humanity won the battle, and the politicians could easily sell it as so, Humanity has in fact lost. The Reapers dared entered New Saharah and strike humanities most powerful fortress, and inflict millions in casualties. What had humanity gained? 50,000 kills? In the grand scheme of things, when combined, the Reapers main battle groups have millions of ships, 50,000 was disposable. Those 50,000 have now shown Humanity is not the cosmic juggernaut it wants others to think it is, it has shown its leaders, and herself they are vulnerable at all locations, and it has shown they have technology still greater than their own - their subspace jamming tech is of particular interest to Shepard.

With a grim nod Shepard understands, the Reapers are playing with her, like a predator would its prey. They would not even let Shepard enter the war on her own terms, really, its grounding, Shepard realises she has far underestimated the Reapers. This war will cost far more blood than she ever feared.

/.../

Juda Atavus almost stumbles in through a door to a shallow bunker built a few feet underground, his long shift of stag duty is now over, meaning he has six hours till he is back on. Six hours to admin oneself, and sleep, and while it may not sound like much, it is more than ample for a good turian. A good turian that has not been in the thick of war for the last few months solid, that is. No, Juda collapses onto the bunk that he shares with two others, but never at the same time as their shifts are stagnated, and sighs as he removes his heavy boots that are covered in a thick clay from manoeuvring in drenched trenches. With his wet armour removed Juda climbs into his doss bag and pulls his weapon inside with him, the weapon points towards his feet and is placed between his sleeping bag and bivvi bag, which is standing operating procedure.

With everything ready Juda is good to sleep, but instead, he pulls his omni-tool out with the plan of spending five minutes unwinding, because while those five minutes may mean five minutes less sleep, it replaces restless sleep with the more valuable type, the type which will allow him to wake up in six hours time feeling slightly less fatigued. The moment his omni-tool is powered the first thing he does is to check if he has signal, and he is pleasantly surprised to find he has. Often, he wonders if the Reapers allow the signal to continue because all the news is filled with is Reaper victories, which will hit morale all across the galaxy, but one could never know.

Before Juda can activate the news app his Omni-tool flashes as if hit by static, and then a sound of war drums begin to play, and soon a video is forcing its way onto his screen, the video shows a space battle being waged behind a golden eagle, with 'Federal News' written above. "Citizens of the galaxy," A voice proclaims in high Turian as the golden eagle and text fades from existence, "Today, the war you have shed sweat, tears and blood for turns. Today, the Reapers, at the hands of human forces have discovered the definition of defeat. As of 21,16 local time, 100,000 Reaper vessels entered an ambush in New Saharah. The heros of 13th fleet purged them all from the system, defeating 49,208 Reapers as they did so."

A quick montage of footage plays, showing a vast field of Reaper debris.

"What does this mean for you?

Humanity at War! With permission granted, Enforcer Shepard has begun mass deployment of Human forces across your galaxy, our mission is the complete defeat of the Reapers.

Want to know more?

Human forces, the Mobile Infantry, will begin liberation events on species homeworlds in conjunction with the Protheans, Rachni, and Krogan. We are willing to provide mass aid, on request. Should you encounter our soliders, give us a wave, but stay clear, we have a job to complete!

How can you help?

Good question, citizen! Humanity may be in the fight now, but that doesn't mean you can lay down your weapons. We need you to..."

Juda rolls his eyes as he puts his omni-tool down and lies back on his bed, he could sniff the propaganda in that video from a mile away, but as he thinks in bed, he can't help but hope that maybe this war isn't a lost cause quite yet.

/.../

 **So, hope you liked this chapter, and the Reapers.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright, time for some revenge imo.**

 **Cheers again to all who have reviewed, faved, followed and read this!**

 **Undisclosed location - Top Secret meeting 2 days after the battle for New Saharah.**

Shepard is the last to enter the dimly-lit room, and inside she finds 5 fleet admirals, each sat behind a desk with enough computing power to orchestrate entire fleet manoeuvres and battles. This room has been used to wargame thousands of times in the past, so each admiral is well acquainted with their own desk, each having it set up to their own liking. One has his coffee machine dominating the right side of his desk for those long nights, while another a figure of his favourite sci-fi ship along with an old analogue clock and another more rigid admiral has a book or two of doctrine for that rare moment he has a mind fart.

When Shepard sits down the boldest admiral speaks, voicing the rooms thoughts, "What the hell was that Shepard, we got caught with our pants down, tackle in hand."

Shepard is well aware of this fact, "Indeed we did, and I am well aware of our losses, but the Reapers have played their first move, and they have sent a message."

"A message?" An Admiral questions? "I would say they sent more than that. We lost tens of thousands of ships, ships we can barely afford to spare."

"The 13th fleet was always intended to be lost." Shepard hits back. "Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise now the deed has been done."

The admirals grumble over this fact, yes they all knew the 13th would be decimated, if not destroyed outright, but this does not mean any of them like it. Eventually one asks, "Then what is this message?"

Shepard replies to the Admiral after a second to make herself comfortable. "New Saharah was considered to be a hidden territory. I've since had reports of Reaper devices in orbit around most of our solar systems. Including Sol. We are vulnerable across all sectors."

Sol may not be the powerhouse of New Saharah, and it may only house a small fraction of Humanity, partly due to the fact Earth is now almost vacant, but it is one of Humanities most protected systems. If the Reapers invaded Sol, despite its strategic insignificance, every expanse would be taken to ensure it stays in human hands. It is actually considered an incredibly vulnerability as it would require mass redeployment of fleets. Shepard hopes and presumes its insignificance will keep it unscathed in the reckoning, but she knows presumptions are the mother of all fuck ups.

"Simply put, the Reapers are showing they know where we are hiding, they have demonstrated they can hit us, and make us bleed. They are ready for the fight and can punch back."

This causes many of the admirals to grumble, many of their tactics have taken for granted that many of humanities systems are unknown to the enemy. One of the more conservative Admirals speaks, "For each ship we make, we can pump out a hundred automated defence systems, and for a fleet, we can have rudimentary planetary shielding installed. If we need to delay, I vote delay."

Shepard shakes her head, "No, now is the time to show we are not playing catch up. Their latest skirmish has given us many Reaper brains to prod. We have discovered their shipyards, mining systems, exercise areas and more. I intend on hitting their production by taking their shipyards."

An admiral pulls a hand down his facial hair, "Hit them in the baby makers, I like it, but it smells like a trap."

Shepard nods, its true, the data was recovered rather conveniently, but scouts have verified the data, in the Reaper held system there are 45 - 50 thousand shipyards, each producing a Reaper pawn as they speak, however, their rate of production has slowed during the war effort. "At the moment," Shepard starts, "It is a trap, when we arrive I have no doubts we will be swarmed with Reapers transporting into the system, but they played a hand early."

"Which hand do you mean?" Asks another Admiral, pointedly since the Reapers have played a few unexpected hands.

"Their subspace tech." Shepard replies, "The Reapers give us tech on a golden platter, their spike, despite being a trap, proved most insightful. As I speak I have factories churning out replicants of their own tech, but we have them trumped here. The simple truth is, our analysts have combed through the data, their method to jump into New Saharah was sloppy, meaning by every estimate I've ascertained, our transport tech trumps theirs by a good few generations. My best guess is because we use it every day and require it to be of the highest quality, they meanwhile rarely seem to use it, so we are jumping on this and we are going to exploit it in the counter-attack. We know jumping tech better, meaning we can modify their subspace jammers to be more effective. With this in mind, we are going to jump in the system, and block their own reinforcements using a modified version of their own tech. It means, providing all goes as planned, we have 150,000 Harbinger Class, and 300,000 destroyer class or below to handle, on top of any in system defences."

An admiral whistles as he thinks how many ships this will require, "Sounds bloody." She says.

Shepard nods, "Yes, but we are playing in their turf. Once we capture a single dockyard and get it out of there, gloves are off, none of this nonsense in New Saharah."

An admiral who has so far been quiet speaks up, "So we have a golden opportunity, providing nothing goes wrong, what is your plan?"

"We get in, we take a dockyard, then we leave nothing standing." Shepard initially replies, being acutely aware that this order in human space would be highly illegal, not only for being 'vague' in what 'leave nothing standing' means but also what it implies. Yes, the Reapers may be cold ruthless calculating machines, but they are still capable of making decisions, and possibly, however unlikely, one of those decisions could be to surrender. "But for the intricate details, I must insist you wait till orders which will be at 1900 tomorrow, you have till 1505 tomorrow to war game this situation."

"Very well," The admiral states, "Then if we are going to discuss this intimately later, may I inquire as to the state of the sproutlings?" Sproutlings being a new but quickly taking off nickname for the other citadel affiliated species in the galaxy.

Shepard nods before bringing up another map, "During the invasion of New Saharah, I unleashed the Rachni, Geth, Krogan and Quarian fleets into blue territory, their progress is slow but effective. When the Geth and Rachni beat the Reaper fleets back the Krogan land to push their ground forces back and the Quarians are doing a good job of making emergency infrastructure for the internally displaced refugees." Shepard shows another map, "This is our estimate for months end. As I mentioned, its slow progress, but its something we don't need to worry about. I suspect the Protheans will stop bumbling about with their personal vendetta soon and join the Geth and Rachni fleets, which will hopefully speed things up, their fleets are by far the most experienced and lethal against the reapers, and a concoction of Geth, Rachni and Prothean is going to be potent."

"Excellent, then I await orders."

/.../

 **1900 the next day**

Shepard looks around the room which currently contains 100 Admirals, 10 Strategic fleet commanders, 5 army commanders and a small contingency of Citadel affiliated admirals, together, these people control 200,000 vessels and a land army just north of 100,000. "Good morning," She greets them, "Listen in for a set of orders..." The orders start much like any other set, and since the process of delivering orders for a deliberate strike has not changed in the last ten thousand years or so, every human in attendance knows what to expect. The process of delivering orders is not like what movies make it out to be, but in fact, it is slow, deliberate and thorough, and it follows a process, a one which would turn many movie goers off long before the meat of the plan. The real juice of the orders is the intricate details of what is supposed to happen, then following this set of orders, everyone in this room would deliver a follow-up set of orders to their subordinates, and so on till the very lowest of ranks have heard a set of orders delivered to them that is appropriate for their taskings.

When Shepard arrives at the juicy part of orders, she addresses each order to the person or group it is relevant to, because giving fleet orders to army commanders and vice versa is not appropriate. "19th, 33st and 40th fleet..." Shepard begins, "Will enter once we have confirmed our subspace blockers are active, isolating the system. The code word for your insertion is Thermopylae. Your main effort is to fix the enemy fleet in order to allow for the infiltration teams to clear dockyards A113 to A114." Shepard repeats the order before a hologram highlights the two dockyards in red. "8th, and 51st fleet, you are my main effort. Your task is to support the infiltration teams, your main effort is to ensure they land at the dockyards, be prepared to transition into a defence force to prevent the enemy from attacking ground forces via none localised means. Citadel associates, you will be our rear vanguard and reserves, be prepared to assist the 8th and 51st fleet." The order process takes a good hour and a half, any shorter and the necessary details would not have been covered in enough detail, and any longer and people will have lost focus.

/.../

 **Higherarchy Warship Klendathu**

The Hierarchy once prided itself on being the most powerful navy in the known galaxy, its largest ever fleet, assembled during the Krogan Rebellion numbered at 10,000. This 10,000, however, consisted of not only war vessels, but support and logistics, meaning in reality, it only had a strength of 6,000 war vessels at a push. For Captain Sepip, the human fleet awaiting the order to deploy was beyond anything imaginable, it consists of 199,980 war vessels and 20 support vessels, which is magnitudes larger than anything the citadel nevermind the Turian Higherarchy had ever considered making. Then there is the fact that of these vessels, most were larger than the citadel, and to a citadel affiliated species, this was almost too much to comprehend. Seeing the assembled fleet in all its glory Captain Sepip knew that when it comes to it, his small vessel is not there to dish out punishment to the Reapers, but rather to spread the word of how the Humans humiliated the Reapers in their own turf.

"All Fleets," Fleet Orchestrator Hackett speaks over the comm system, "Charge weapons and raise shielding." Captain Sepip made the relevant orders. When every ships weapon is glowing white hot, when shields are raised and thick armour plates cover vulnerable points the follow-up order shortly follows.

"Thermopylae. Thermopylae. Thermopylae."

Captain Sepip barely had the time to react before his ship was transported to a dark corner of the galaxy in a white flash. "Sensors, report." He barks instantly.

It takes the sensor expert a few moments to gather the relevant data, and his voice fluctuates a little at the numbers, "199,980 Human vessels are in formation, along with 20 support vessels to the rear. 20 Citadel vessels are appropriately located. Situation enemy, we have 152,961 Harbinger class vessels, and 366,602 destroyers in the system. I detect a total of 48,000 dockyards, with A113 being in the centre-left middle. We also have an approximate 900,000 defensive platforms spread throughout the system."

Before Sepip can even whistle in appreciation of the numbers, white beams of bubbling hot energy begin to fly towards the Reaper lines as the 19th 31st and 40th fleets open fire, simultaneously the 8th and 51st fleet begin to speed towards the dockyards. When the white beams connect with the Reapers there are glorious explosions in space of all colours as different chemicals are caught up in the explosions, and to know that in each explosion a Reaper goes down, it is a wonderful sight to behold.

It is not long after the first salvo is fired till the Reapers respond, and shortly more than a million pieces of superheated and liquified tungsten is honing in on the human war vessels. The human response was two-fold, firstly the fleets attempted to move out of high probability area's where they are likely to sustain hits, and secondly, high explosive charges are launched against the molten rounds in efforts to minimise the amount to reach human lines. Captain Sepip did not fancy letting his small vulnerable ship be hit, so cowered behind a large pillar of conquest, much like his other citadel affiliated captains.

Due to numbers alone, it is inevitable that a few Reaper rounds hit home, but the Reaper response lacked the punch required to penetrate energy shields, that is until a large white beam comes from seemingly nowhere and obliterates an 80km long pillar of conquest.

/.../'

Inside a support vessel connected to 19th fleet.

Spectre Nsert is an experienced turian soldier, he has seen action on 4 different hostile worlds, with each world bringing its own difficulties, but considering the war, this mission is perhaps his most unusual. He is simply to report what he sees to his superiors.

"Alright, Roughnecks," He hears a human shout over the sound of his vessel speeding towards dockyard A114 "What makes the grass grow?"

He is surprised by the response. "Blood! Blood! Blood!" The humans shout in unison and as if by instinct and as if the response has been drilled into them.

"And what is your purpose."

Another unexpected response comes. "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

And what are you?" "Death! Death! Death!"

The man standing does not look pleased. "I don't believe you!" He shouts to them, "What makes the grass grow?"

"Blood! Blood! Blood!" The response comes.

The man is still not happy. "This is pathetic, Bravo Company will be the first to complete their objectives at this rate. WHAT MAKES THE GRASS GROW?"

"BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!"

"Better!" The man shouts to them, "What is your purpose?"

"KILL KILL KILL!"

"YES!" As he speaks the man smacks a bulkhead, deforming it and bloodying his hand as he does so, "And what are you?!"

"DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!"

"WHAT ARE YOU?"

"DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!"

Hearing a loud clatter from something probably hitting his transport Nsert turns to look in the direction of the sounds of origin, but the man addressing his troops pays it no heed. "Then prove it! Once we are in enemy territory we are going to be doing one thing and one thing only. Now, I don't know about you, but I didn't cross a galaxy to teach the Reapers a lesson in humanity, Reapers ain't got no Humanity, they are the soldiers of a bio hating maniac, and they need to be destroyed. That is why every son of a bitch wearing Reapers colours are going to die. We will be cruel to the Reapers, and through our cruelty, they will know who we are, and they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disembowelled, disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. The Reapers won't be able to help themselves but imagine what their brothers endured at our hands, at our boot heels, at the edge of our knives, and the Reapers will be sickened by us, and the Reapers will talk about us, and the Reapers will fear us. Then, when the Reapers close their eyes at night, and they are tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be thoughts of us that they are tortured with..." Hearing the doors to the shuttle begin to open the man then asks, "Sound good?"

"YES SIR!"

The commander smiles, "What are you?"

The expected response comes. "DEATH DEATH DEATH."

Now I believe it," The man claims as he looks across his company, "Men, you are here to fulfil your purpose, scream your rage, show your enemy your conviction, and give no quarter. We are here to deliver, and by my goddam word, will you deliver, or I will shoot you myself." Feeling the ship land the man gives a nod before unslinging his rifle and making ready. "Now lock and load, we have a job to do. Prepare to disembark hot Roughnecks!"

The moment the commanding officer stops speaking the men are on their feet, weapons in hand and made ready. Nsert also finds himself on his feet, but unlike the eagre humans who are continuing to psyche themselves up for the conflict Nsert gives a quick whisper to the Ancestors, he does not know if the spirits are real, but it gives him comfort. Hearing a loud claxon ring Nsert looks up to see the shuttles large ramp lowering, allowing the men aboard to storm their front.

Before the doors are fully open, however, tall black creatures that look more like they belong in nightmares than reality crawl through the ramps open areas, biting and clawing anything in their way, but the humans at the front deal with them without mercy, the creatures are simply construction workers after all. After a few more seconds the ramp is lowered enough that a few men shoot something outside of the shuttle, and soon after a few distant explosions followed by a chest-thumping shockwave or two the onslaught of black creatures stop, long enough for the ramp to lower in its full. The moment they are able, the humans storm free from the shuttle, massacring anything in their path with extreme brutality.

With the drop zone secured the commanding officer gives a nod and the reserves move forward, they will become the break in company that will fight their way into dockyard A113.

As Nsert advances with the reserves he keeps looking around, it feels to him like the walls of the dockyards are crawling, and moving, as if it an organic creature. A human Sergeant sees the Turian acting strangely so pulls him aside. "What is it?" He asks.

"The walls." The turian says. "Feel like they are pressing down on me."

"Hmm." The sergeant says as he looks around the walls. "Keep your wits about you." The man then taps his head, "and don't let them in up here."

The company continue down the corridor for a few uninterrupted moments till all hell brakes lose, when Reaper pawns of all types pour out of the walls from hidden doors and entrances, effectively surrounding the soldiers and cutting them off from withdrawal. The Sargent, quickly realising the overpowering strength of the resistance grabs a few men and assign them to the Spectre, "Get him back to C-coy!" He informs them, "We will handle this infestation."

/.../

Major Gorman looks across his many monitors, each one displays a different soldiers video feed, showing what the soldier is seeing, and displaying his life signs. Along with the video feed, there is also an audio feed.

"They're everywhere, sarge!" A voice belonging to a private soldier calls.

"They're in the god damn ceiling above us!" Another shouts through the quickly congested radio feed. A scream of agony is the next voice followed by a screech that could give grown men nightmares.

Another voice speaks over the radio, "Damit, keep firing!"

"1 section is gone!"

"gone?"

"They are fucking gone! we are being obliterated! Where is my god damn fire support?"

"God damn it! Sunray is down! Sunray is down. 2IC taking over. Where the hell is B Coy?"

"B Coy is stuck in the corridor, they're not going to make it."

"B Coy was behind us!"

"Fuck we need to get outta here."

"Get a grip, keep pushing forward!"

"Get a grip? We just lost 1 sec! and 2 sec is being shredded. Pull back now!"

"No one pulls..." Heavy fire is heard over the radio before it goes quiet and a different voice calls, "Fire everything! Just fucking kill..."

Gorman grimaces, the Roughnecks have almost being obliterated. After clearing his throat he says, "Hold out Roughnecks, Spartans are inbound."

What follows is a colourful collection of expletives till someone says, "We have had fucking spartans this whole time and we are stuck here in this shit? Fuck the COC."

Gorman breathes out heavily, there are no Spartans, he was simply giving them a bit of hope so that they kept fighting, switching channel he says. "C Coy, D coy and E coy, you are clear to launch, be advised, A coy and B coy have drawn the enemy out of their hiding holes and have been eliminated by heavy enemy resistance."

/.../

Shepard looks on as her fleet decimate Reaper after reaper, unlike New Saharah where her fleets were tentative with their shots, here they are ruthless, hitting with everything they have, with the aim of causing as much destruction to the Reapers as they can achieve.

But the Reapers are not sitting back idly, the defensive systems employed by the machines are equally as ruthless, firing bolts of energy that can tear through most of her ships in one shot, and there have proved to be a lot of these defensive positions. Most of these defensive platforms are being eliminated the second they fire their first salvo, but they have still done great damage due to sheer numbers alone, her fleet of 200,000 now numbers at 145,827, but the losses so far have been worth it. Hundreds of thousands of Reapers are now scrap metal, ready for her teams to poke and prod in order to unlock their secrets, and her goal of capturing a dockyard intact is almost complete, despite heavy losses reported ground side.

Seeing a collection of large explosion Shepard smiles a little, knowing that her ground team have now detonated the two dockyards that surround the one she intends to capture, meaning that the mission has been a success, despite the losses.

With the primary mission, complete her fleets turn even more ruthless, if possible, leaving nothing in their path standing.

/.../

3 hours later

Shepard strolls down a dark corridor covered in blood, guts, dismembered limbs and who knows what else, it is obvious to any and all that the battle here was fierce, maybe some of the most fierce in the entire war. Many good companies of highly trained and determined men have died to take it. Some of the defending creatures encountered have never been seen before, and are truly that of nightmares, some have claws 3 feet long, black bodies with no distinguishable features, and weapons embedded into their bodies.

Shepard stops walking as a console lights up when she walks past it. Turning to face it she raises a brow before a holographic image presents itself to her, the image is that of Reaper.

"Harbinger?" Shepard Asks, recognising the Reaper.

There is a moments pause before the Reaper replies, "Enforcer, to preserve life you have already committed one to extinction."

Shepard pauses for a second, "True, I eliminated the TX machines."

"You have blinded yourself with your obsession to see our demise that you have failed to notice that your actions have proven that we are the same."

Shepard looks around before asking, "What do you want?"

"We eliminate advanced life so that the primitive can flourish, you have obsessed yourself to eliminating ourselves so that you can flourish. In order for there to be a victor, there must be a yet another genocide."

"No," Shepard says, "I eliminate you, and we are free of this cycle, the killing stops."

"You know of the others, your species will not stand by idly while they flourish. We use different methods, but we are willing to reach the same end state, we are the same."

"If you have nothing of value to say, then this conversation is over." There is yet another moment of silence before Harbinger's image fades, leaving Shepard to study her most recent capture.

 **In the next chapter, I'm debating about having Shepard meet the Borg/Picard/Janeway, or Mastercheif as one-off side story for the chapter like how I had her meet Adama, palpatine ect. Any preferences?**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, so I would just like to clear one or two things up. most importantly, the Reapers in this story are obviously not the same as the Reapers in cannon ME. Here they are more tenacious, far more advanced, and more numerous, and while yes, my Humanity knows how to build a fleet and lock horns, I still want the Reapers to be at least a little scary to them.**

 **But yes, my humanity is going to evidently win, but they are going to experience losses, and the Reapers aren't just going to roll over and expose their belly.**

 **Finally, no godchild. Bugger that idea and whoever came up with it.**

 **Also, I had more internet this month thanks to surfacing for NY and Christmas so here are my review responses for the last chapter,**

 **Pteaset: No worries, cheers for liking it.**

 **Edocsiru: Hmm, if you wanting to see a Humanity F! Yeah it is coming, just I've changed the reapers a little to match their capabilities sprouted in the games, I.E To be billion-year-old genocidal machines. Tell me what you want to see more of though and I'll see how I can accommodate. A guy said last time he liked how the Reapers were still scary, so I've tried to keep that up.**

 **Orionastro: Cheers**

 **Shadowcub: Yeah, found a way around that.**

 **Ronin Kenshin: This is the real problem, the size of these battles would be beyond imagination. You can't really imagine hundreds of thousands of ships engaged in combat. That is why I'm giving a brief idea of what is happening and letting your imagination run away with the rest of it.**

 **M-f42: Roger, enjoy the last part of this.**

 **Guest: The mentioned mode of transport rips the person down to their atoms and rebuilds them elsewhere, I consider this a cloned person. The original was torn apart in my books. The one used currently in this story rips space apart instead, thus requiring much higher levels of energy.**

 **Tobetasered: Hmm, it appears you are right. Cheers for the correction. As for the Roughnecks in D-coy, you might have noticed alot of starship trooper refrences in the last chapter, (Like a lot,) so they were humans, and like their roughneck counterparts in Starship troopers on klendathu, they got massacred. It didn't help the man talking to them was also the dude from Aliens who got his team massacred in the first engagement. This story is really an easter egg galore, and I'll tip my hat to any who finds them all. (For anyone searching my favourite** films / games **etc are space related.)**

 **GeneralElectric: As seen, the Reapers are far more advanced, and if they revealed themselves earlier than they were bound to be destroyed.**

 **Guest: Hmm, starcraft, I like the idea of the Zerg, I won't lie, but not overly familiar with the series.**

 **Hadrian .Caeser** **: I don't like the Q, there is no explanation behind them, no technology or anything. Till such an explanation starts to arise, in this universe they do not exist. Cheers though for the comment.**

 **Serialkeller: Cheers and the catalyst doesn't really exist in this, the Reapers do not have a God child or anything like that.**

 **Iamlordthorne: Thanks.**

 **Mrbogus: All Shepard wanted to do was to take the station, and to be honest I thought 100K ground troops was a bit much to start with for the tasking at hand. As for the Borg, they will make an appearance, but it will be in an offshoot, like when Shepard met Adama, or Palp's.**

 **Guest: Not all humanities hands have been shown yet. I start to show some of their more advanced capabilities in this chapter.**

 **Finally, Happy new year to all!**

/.../

Since being restricted to the Indomitable for her actions on Thessia River has quickly found life onboard the mega vessel boring, despite all the holo-decks and numerous other entertainment centres available on the ship for her to please herself with, meaning these days she has to actively find entertainment from other sources, even if that means bugging her mother. "Whatcha doing?" River asks, peering over Shepard's shoulder as she works on some sort of document which appears rather official. If River really wanted to know, she would have just read the words typed and displayed on the screen, but River isn't really interested in the report.

"Post battle report." Shepard sighs, "Telling the big mouths why losing 925,716 lives was worth it for one Reaper shipyard." One time, losing this many lives in a single war, nevermind a single battle would be hard to comprehend, but over Shepard's long life she has slowly prepared her society to accept such figures due to the harsh reality that the Reapers are here to exterminate life, not settle some dispute.

River blinks along while just trying to remember that those deaths are the fault of the Reapers, not her mothers, "So, was it worth it?"

Shepard, realising she was not going to get much more done with her adoptive daughter quizzing her turns around in her swivel chair to answer, "Yes." She then replies with confidence, "We know our subspace blockers are now capable of isolating a system from the Reapers, meaning I have authorised construction for subspace blockers to be active in every human system. If the Reapers want to attack another system, they will have to jump in from a distance and travel through conventional means to attack us, giving us critical time to mount our defences. We also know the Reapers have in their arsenal traditional energy weapons that do not require their relays to power them, so we should expect further confrontations with said energy devices. These devices very existence also tells me they must have external energy generators somewhere."

Shepard then refers back to the screen behind her, which she has pulled up a picture of the captured dockyard with its specifications highlighted. "Now, what do you notice about this?" The dockyard may have only been in Human hands for the better part of a week, but it has already been thoroughly torn apart, in order to learn its every secret.

River shrugs as she reads out some details, "17km long by 6 deep and 5 wide, One point one million 'workers'... What should I be noticing?"

Shepard taps on one specification, "17km long, at first I thought they must be using this one to build their relays, thus is the reason I wanted to capture this specific one, but it lacks the required traces of eezo to be such a dockyard. All of this leads me to conclude that they build something else here, something that is up to 17km long."

"Any ideas?" Asks River with a little concern in her voice, not particularly liking the idea of a 17km long Reaper lose in space. Shepard nods as she pulls up another image, this one is of some sort of Reaper Ship River is unfamiliar with, its armaments are far beyond what even Harbinger possess, and its armour is thick enough to probably withstand a blast from a low-level energy weapon, suggesting that its shields are probably if not most definitely incredibly advanced. "Looks like a bruiser," River says, not at all fond with the ship's appearance.

Shepard nods again, "We know this shipyard has produced 17 of these so-called 'Gunships' in the last decade alone. I know of no Reaper fleet consisting of such a ship. Where in the hell are they? They also worry me because frankly, its specs are perfect for killing Pillars of Conquest, when they show their face, we need to be prepared."

River nods along, these 'gunships' can only have been designed for one thing only, and that one thing is dangerous, and it worries her that these ships are out there, and her mother does not know where they are. "What do you intend on doing about it?"

"A while ago I authorised the construction of some small ships with the power of a Pillar of Conquest, you may remember them engaging at the end of the battle for New Saharah, I believe they will be perfect for killing this ship type if I get enough of them, if being the keyword as our dockyards are already at capacity. As for where they are, I hope to drag them into the light with my next assault."

"In that case, where are we hitting next?"

"Reaper planet designated XX6." Shepard says, referring to a huge planet the Reapers have built alot of tech around. "But I don't intend on having a bruiser; we get in, we fire the Little Doctor and let them have it."

"The little doctor?" River asks, not knowing of such a weapon, which is unsurprising considering the number of apocalyptic strength weapons Shepard has had in secret development over her long life. Many call Shepard 'Death Incarnate' for her seemingly endless arsenal of weapons she has authorised for development over the years to end life on vast scales, and in many ways, the name is not wrong for Shepard holds trillions of lives in her hands for every decision she makes in the war against the Reapers.

"The little doctor..." Shepard says while at the same time her terminal almost instantly begins to play a video. Upon seeing the video River gulps, the planet struck by the 'Little Doctor' was once an arid world, the key word being 'once'. After the Little Doctor did its work, its surface was nothing short of a sea of superheated lava.

"What do the Reapers have here that requires such devastating actions?"

"From the shipyards we have discovered that each reaper has its own personality like me and you, but what we have discovered is that these personalities can swap in and out of vessels, meaning the Reaper is just code, separate of its vessel. One personality may be better for ground offensives, another space battles and another commanding ground troops. But where do these other personalities go when not in use? We believe it is here, this world is a huge server. We destroy it, we give the Reapers a blow like no other."

River seems to nod along with this for a while before asking, "Theoretically speaking, could we transport the planet to say here? If we got rid of the subspace blockers, obviously."

Shepard raises a brow as she thinks before saying, "We have the energy required to do it, but why would we? We give away just how much energy we can conjure on a moments notice, and we still need to assault the planet to disable subspace blockers."

"Why would showing our energy production capabilities give anything away?"

"Because I don't want the Reapers to realise I have the capability to transport a planet away if they break through our defences. Then, they will realise that our true power lies not in our warships, but our energy production. If they go hunting our Dyson spheres, dark energy plants, or anything else, we will begin spreading our fleets far and thin. The less they know we have, the better."

"We have Dyson spheres?"

Shepard nods, "This surprises you? More impressively than that, we have one built around a black hole, but very few know of it because if we have devices that can make an entire solar system uninhabitable, then you can bet your ass that the Reapers do too, and these things take thousands of years to construct, so losing one to a single weapon would be devastating. "

/.../

6 days later

The battle group assembled to attack Reaper planet XX6 differs from that which assaulted the dockyards for one simple reason, that being that they aren't there to kill Reaper ships, but to support the Indomitable in its quest to kill a planet.

So, instead of jumping a few hundred thousand attack ships into the Reaper held system, such as Pillars of Conquest, Shepard arrives in the system with 300,000 Knox's. Knox's are old vessels that can be remotely controlled, but old does not mean they are obsolete - yet, and Knox's are infamous for being able to take a severe beating, well beyond that of even the most reinforced Pillar of Conquest - only the Indomitable could take more of a beating. The reason Knox's do not make up the majority of human fleets is due to changes in doctrine - meaning how humanity fights today with Pillar of Conquests is different to how Humanity would fight thousands of years ago with Knox's.

With all ships in the Reaper system the next phase of battle begins. "Dispatch networks." The networks will link all Knox's together and allow each Knox to communicate through even the most tenacious of electronic and subspace warfare environments - providing they remain within 0.7 AU of each other.

"Subspace blocking detected around XX6, the radius of effect is 15AU." The subspace blocking was known about and is the reason the Indomitable did not spawn just above the planet and fire its weapon.

Shepard nods as she says, "Begin phase 2, commence construction of Collum."

Phase 2 has the armada of Knox's surround the Indomitable and begin to share their energy and shielding. Nothing is to hit the Indomitable. The Knox's to go on the outside of the collum will be remotely controlled from manned Knox's on the inside and closest to the Indomitable.

As the Knox's begin to manoeuvre into position Reaper fire begins to arrive, but with so many Knox's nothing makes it through their shielding or defensive systems - yet.

With the Knox's in position, Shepard then gives the order for phase 3 to begin, resulting in the collum of ships to start their advance on XX6. As the block of vessels advances, anything with a shot takes it, and anything in the way of the vessels are shot and smashed into.

"Collision report!" A crewman shouts 2 minutes after the collum begins to move, "Reapers have transported an asteroid into flight path, 1000KM deep, iron core."

"Destroy it!"

The closer they get to the planet designated XX6 the more the Reapers throw at the collum, energy weapons, asteroids, everything they can think of hits the collum, but with so much energy, defences and weapons massed into such a small space, nothing much gets through - even the Reapers energy weapons struggle to surpass the immense cloud of energy shielding, and only manage to destroy a few ships per strike.

By the time the Indomitable is in striking range of planet XX6 there are still 253,847 Knox's left, despite going against a force of greater than 1 million, its better than Shepard had hoped for. "Phase 4. Form window,"

The numerous Knox's in front of the Indomitable's 'little doctor' clear to allow the Indomitable to do its thing and shortly after two bright white beams strike the planet. Shepard does not stop to watch the weapon do its work, "Commence Phase 5, fighting withdrawal."

Soon the armada is outside of the Reapers subspace blocking and the entire fleet transport out of the Reaper held system.

/.../

3 months later

Riverlooks up from the game she is playing on her tablet and to her mothers console, which is now flashing blue, indicating an incoming call. Knowing her mother went to bed a small time ago River stands and moves to the table to take the call. Upon accepting it she comes face to face with Wrex. "Wrex, long time no see." She says.

"Good to see you too kid. Is the old Varren about?"

River looks up to her mother's room, the light is off, "She went to bed not so long ago, I don't think she will want to be disturbed. Want me to pass a message on to her?"

"Hmm," The Krogan scowls a little before nodding, "Yeah, tell her I need to see her, sooner rather than later, in fact tell her its urgent."

"Alright, I'll tell her now. Just be ready for her when she shows as she isn't going to be pleased with being awoken so soon after going to bed." After disconnecting the call River pads into her mother's bedroom and shakes her leg, while completely ignoring the additional body in the bed, stirring the Enforcer.

Awakening, Shepard rubs her eyes before asking, "Yeah?"

"Wrex wants to see you, says it's urgent."

Shepard looks to the time before sighing heavily and untangling herself from the additional body in her bed and standing straight, cracking the bones in her back as she does so. "When isn't it these days? How long ago did he call?"

"2 mins, give or take a second."

Shepard nods before finding her way to a shower. "Then I guess I best not keep him waiting."

/.../

15 mins later - Krogan Ark world

Shepard leans on a sturdy railing as she looks out over the city the Krogan have built with the Geth, and the city is not like what she expected the Krogan to build. Shepard had fully expected the Krogan to insist on a traditional design, meaning buildings half above ground, half under, and built to survive heavy carpet bombing runs, but instead, the Krogan have gone for something more modern, with most buildings being above ground and constructed from clean steels and thick glass. But this does not mean the buildings aren't sturdy, the glass sheets could probably survive a bullet or two before breaking and the steel walls would be able to repel even the most enraged Krogan charging at them. Then the city itself is designed to repel an invading force, it has choke points left right and centre, almost every building can be quickly turned into a fortress, and erectable barriers hide just below the ground, ready for quick deployment in the streets. Looking even closer, some may even spot the heavy turrets built into the walls of some buildings, and with a very acute eye, one may spot Geth weapon platforms.

Hearing the heavy thuds of an approaching Krogan Shepard says, "You've built yourself a nice place here, Wrex."

The Krogan comes to a stop and rests the railings next to her, his huge size makes the Enforcer look rather petite. "Something worth fighting for," The Krogan agrees. "And my people may not show it, but we are proud of what we have done here. It has been too long since we built anything that wasn't for battle."

"How are you getting along with the Geth?"

The Krogan shrugs his huge shoulders, eliciting a crack from his shoulder blades in protest. "Half the time you forget they are even here. Mostly, they just live in those little electronic boxes of theirs they are hiding in the ocean, then when needed they come out into those platforms and do their business."

"You know," Shepard begins, "Those boxes are called servers, and they are under the ocean because it's easier to cool said servers?"

"If you say so," Rumbles the old Battlemaster, "But for why I asked you here, you have a problem."

Shepard turns from looking out over the city and to the Krogan, "Better be a big one Wrex, I left a certain someone in bed for this if you get my gist." Even an Enforcer who is not supposed to create connections must let steam off every now and then - the person in the bed will be sworn to secrecy, or face death without a trial as Enforcers are ultimately Judge, Jury and Executioner - they are the only people in human space with such power.

The old Krogan chuckles, "Trust me, it is, even your romping can wait for this one. My guys stormed the STG base on Neigierreas with the Protheans. We found this." The Krogan hands over a datapad to Shepard. It turned out that despite their very obvious differences that the Krogans and Protheans were made for one another, their love for settling things with weaponry - the bigger the weapon the better - had united them in combat and often the two species would fight the Reapers together.

Shepard looks at the data-pad as her nano-bots hack it and absorb all its information in the split of a second. After a moment to absorb the information Shepard says, "You have done the right thing bringing this to my attention. Have you made any copies of this?" Shepard quietly wonders why Wrex brought this to her before the Protheans, as they have all the networks already established and could have had this to her the moment they discovered it.

The Krogan breathes out of his nostrils sharply before saying, "No, I'm not that stupid."

The Enforcer hands a now erased and formatted datapad back to the Krogan as she stands from the railing, "Pull all your forces out of operations against the STG. They have decided to take a bite out of a much larger fish, and this fish bites back. You have till 1800 standard time tomorrow. "

/.../

1800 Standard time, D+1

The second the clock ticks 1800 Shepard has tens of thousands of ships flood the Milkyway, scouring for STG ships, bases, and anything else they call an asset, and unless the asset was designated as an intelligence hub worthy of investigation, each asset was destroyed with what could be called overkill - that being the primary cannon of a Pillar of Conquest. One base, however, Shepard has sent the Indomitable after, for no other reason than to send a message. The moment her flagship arrives in System Shepard listens as the Indomitable's bridge crew do their work.

"All systems green across the board." One system engineer speaks, while another says, "Red base at the expected location."

All seems to be going to plan until one voice says, "Gravity well detected at 63232,00192,1995." Shepard perks her ears at this, there should be no gravity well, unless... "We have 1024 Reaper signatures, 1022 Capital class, 2 Relays. They are blocking all subspace signals." How these ships were not detected earlier is worrying, all surveys had initially said this space was empty of all but STG vessels.

Shepard leans forward in her chair as she thinks, what on Earth are the STG up to that requires such a defensive force? As the captain of the Indomitable prepares the ship for battle, a one Shepard is unsure it can win, she speaks, "I want on the STG base. Prepare the SR2 for launch, have 6 Spartan teams escorting."

The SR2 is a small frigate 200 meters in length that is designed for espionage and stealth, it will be the perfect vessel to get her onto the STG base while the Indomitable does its work. Before leaving the bridge for the SR2 Shepard says to the Indomitable's captain, "Prep the Reality bomb, nothing escapes this space." She also quietly tells River to get on the SR2 pronto.

The deceivingly young looking yet incredibly old and highly experienced captain of the Indomitable nods his head in understanding. The Reality bomb is no laughing matter, requiring an Enforcers permission to use, it is a weapon of unparalleled capability, capable of making an entire solar system uninhabitable, only a few other weapons in the human arsenal are more dangerous. "Certainly." The reason the weapon wasn't used on station XX6 is due to the fact that the weapon is an area denial one, and not a one designed for destruction.

Just as Shepard arrives on the STG station she glances a quick look back to the Indomitable, which is barely a speck in the dark sky, by now it must be engaging the Reapers, and while the Indomitable is a formidable ship, capable of taking on a small fleet of human vessels, she does not know how it will cope with the Reaper fleet simply due to the Reapers ability to defy what is known of them and be unpredictable.

Hearing her Spartans prepare their weapons for combat Shepard turns to look at her objective, an STG base, an STG base that is hiding something important enough for a Reaper Vanguard of 1000 vessels no less.

Fighting through the STG base was surprisingly easy, many STG networks she could hack in seconds, turning them against their creators, and any ground force was swatted aside without much effort, their weapons being almost entirely useless against her shielding and armour, not to mention her accompanying Spartans own ferocity in land battles. After decimating most of the base, Shepard and her team eventually come across a door, and upon opening it Shepard scowls a little, seeing what is on a few monitors. After massacring the scientists in the room Shepard approaches the monitors and downloads all the available information, and the more she downloads the more she regrets not getting involved with the STG's downfall sooner.

Leaving the room through another door Shepard enters a corridor that left her sick, inside she finds many human samples, many are mutilated with Reaper technology, some more evident than others, but she ignores this, storming towards a door at the end of the room. This door, unlike the others, has an additional set of security codes and processes protecting whatever is behind it from unwarranted entry. With barely a moment spent cracking the code Shepard opens the door and takes a few paces inside an almost entirely white room. Inside, Shepard comes across a young woman sitting on a bed, looking no more than 16 years of age.

Shepard and the woman look at each other for a moment before Shepard takes a few paces forward and grabs the woman by the wrist. The woman attempts to resist, but the Enforcer is not an average Human by any means, and easily overpowers her.

The lead spartan that is escorting Shepard stops in his tracks seeing this, and directs his men to form an all-around defence of the room, he knows when something is above his pay grade, and this is above his pay grade.

Meanwhile, Shepard looks in the woman's eyes, she knows what she should do, and every bone in her body is telling her what to do, but Shepard for some reason can't bring herself to do it. Looking at what is obviously her clone Shepard wonders what it knows, what it has been indoctrinated with. Is it her enemy? Does it even know about her? Does it have the Reapers whispering instructions in its mind? She fears what the STG experiments achieved, and what if anything the STG was able to do with her clone.

After a moment to ponder Shepard eventually says, "We got what we came for. Prepare to move."

Shepard does not give her clone any option but to follow her, and without the "Upgrades" Shepard was forced to endure as a child and the rest of her life to be an Enforcer, the clone has no option but to follow.

Back on the SR2 Shepard drags the clone to the medical bay and sits it down in front of an obviously shocked doctor. "I want to know everything," Shepard says before taking a step back - her eyes do not leave the clone, fearing it could turn into a Reaper pawn without notice.

The doctor nods before doing his thing, and shortly after Shepard has a full doctors report on the clone, and reading it Shepard sits down. "So she is Reaper," Shepard says aloud to the doctor, the clone is still sat on the medical bed, looking around curiously - as if it is unaware of the dire situation it finds itself in.

The doctor half nods, "Yes and no. At first glance, she is you, identical base DNA, and everything else which would make a base human, but when we delve deep, things are different. First of all, you have had beyond extensive gene therapy and augmentation, she has not, not old enough yet, then there is this," The doctor taps on an image of the clones internals, more specifically an unknown organ, taken by an advanced type of body imaging, "This is not human, whatever this is, I have no doubts it is to serve a Reaper purpose."

The Doctor then brings up an image of a nano-bot. "And while these look identical to your nano-bots, they are not, instead they are Reaper tech - but to my best judgement, they serve the same purpose as your own."

Shepard nods, she has heard all she needs to hear, "Doctor, I need a straight answer, is this thing Human or is it Reaper?"

The doctor is lost for words, while the clone has most certainly had input from the Reapers, it is also mostly human. Eventually, the doctor says, "I do not know, I am not qualified to make that decision."

"Then who is?"

The doctor shrugs his shoulders, "The dead STG scientists who have created..."

The ships intercom springs to life, silencing the doctor, "All hands brace, Reality bomb detonating in 5...4...3...2...1... successful detonation, brace for gravity wave impacts."

For the next ten minutes, the SR2 is violently thrown around as powerful gravity waves slam into the vessel, with the ship's pilot doing his utter best to miss the most powerful waves that could tear the vessel a twine.

With the device detonated the space battle comes to an abrupt end - the battle arena now far too dangerous to fight in, leaving Shepard to once more focus on the clone. Turning to a Spartan she says, "If you even suspect its got hostile intent put it down." Then turning to the doctor she says, "I'm going to go and determine what they planned to do with it."

Reading the STG reports some small time later Shepard frowns, it appears the STG scientists were working for the Reapers in order to create a weapon to kill the human population. The clone was built with the theory that if the weapon could kill the clone - thus herself - then the weapon was ready for deployment.

Returning to the clone Shepard frowns before saying, "Activate subspace blockers around this room."

Once the ships AI confirmed the room was being blocked Shepard then emptied some of her own nano-bots into a syringe and handed it to the doctor. "Get some of her blood and inject that into it."

The doctor nodded along and did as asked, Shepard watched her nanobots enter the clones blood on a tv screen. The events that follow leave Shepard feeling a little sick, with the Reaper nano-bots destroying her own.

Pulling a hand through her hair Shepard then orders the Spartan to put the clone into the brig, and turning to the doctor she says, "She is a weapon. Prepare to destroy it and prepare it for R&D."

The doctor looks mortified. "You can't ask me to do that, I took an oath, and Reaper or not, she has a human core."

Shepard is not in an argumentative mood. "Are you refusing to soldier?" Even a doctor is a soldier before his profession in the human fleet. With a moment of silence, Shepard says, "Thought not. Now do as ordered."

/../

Salarian Vessel Songbird

The Songbird is a small frigate with the most advanced stealth systems the Salarians could muster, its use in the war as an intelligence collecting asset had so far proven to be invaluable for the Council. Its latest mission was to watch the Indomitable as it engaged the Reapers, the council wanting to gain a true image of what the war vessel was capable of, but with a flash followed by heavy gravity wave bombardment, Songbird's vision into the battle arena was blurred, the spy ship now unable to tell a ship from a planet, a star from a black hole.

With a nod from the ships captain the pilot took the ship further into the system - in hopes to regain their vision, but the unexpected happened. "Captain," A sensor expert shouts, "Gravity well far beyond 1MG to starboard!"

"1MG? Abort, move to port!" 1MG is enough to tear the ship apart a thousand times, meaning death if the ship goes through the high gravity location. The question then arises, where did this gravity well come from?

"Captain, we have detected a time distortion on the QEC. Every second we spend here is 10 minutes outside the system. Some areas are more."

The captain of the Songbird scowls, he rarely failed an assignment and it is quickly looking like this will be one of those rare few assignments. With a look around the bridge, the captain sniffs once before making the executive decision - this battle space is too dangerous to continue in. Just as the captain is about to speak and turn the ship around the ship slams into a gravity wave, crushing it like a tin can under an elephants foot.

/../

Onboard the Indomitable.

The captain looks around the bridge crew as they work, the battle had been fierce, many reapers now find the cold and harsh love of space to be their final resting place and the Indomitable has taken a severe beaten - and had the reality bomb not gone off he is sure the Indomitable would be a pile of scrap metal by now. But this is not to say the Indomitable did not put up a fight that would go unmentioned in the history books - to the contrary it had fought valiantly, delivering fury like only the Indomitable could - it has destroyed almost 358 ships singlehandedly and sustained many relay shots, a feat few vessels could lay claim to. Many of her weapons are also overheated from the punishment they delivered, many of her generators are damaged from being pushed too far and her armour is worn thin in many places, with it being worn to less than 10 meters thick in some places, instead of its usual km of armour. In truth, the Indomitable is yet to lose an encounter, and it is named so, no ship known can truly endure an encounter with the Indomitable when it is loosened from its shackles.

With a nod, the captain eventually says, "Time to lick wounds. Retrieve the SR2 and take us home." Home in this reference is the dark space dockyard that looks after the Indomitable.

/.../

Small side story for the nerds that has 0 impact on this story arc. Skip if you want till the very last lines of this chapter.

/.../

Shepard picks up a small bag before turning towards her door, "River," She then calls, "I'm off."

The Asari lifts her head up from reading the tablet in her hands, "How long you gone for again, two days?"

Shepard nods before flashing out of existence and arriving in the comfortable HES Prod, a far-reaching exploration ship designed for exploring galaxies far far away from home. Shepard uses this vessel to explore not just far away galaxies, but threats from said galaxies, and today she is off to visit one such threat.

Dropping her bag on a chair she then sets to work, and the first task of the day is to ensure that all systems are operating as expected, then she must actually find her 'threat', and as she lacks the sensors in this galaxy to quickly find them, she must do it the hard way, by scanning the galaxy.

The scanning, however, will take some time, a few hours at best. With the scans underway Shepard makes sure that all shields, weapons and comm systems are primed before ensuring that her vessel can be found and when all of that is done only then does she decide to hit the sack for a few precious hours.

Meanwhile onboard the Voyager Kim raises a brow as an unusual signal starts to ping his vessel, after playing around with the signal some to try and make heads and tails of it he eventually calls out, "Captain, we have just been probed."

Janeway snaps her head to his direction. "Probed? Where from?"

"Not sure, no vessel is detected on sensors."

Janeway frowns, she does not like her vessel being randomly probed. "What direction?"

Kim does know this, however, so with a direction in mind Janeway sets her ship in that direction and soon they come across a small white vessel in space, its 150m wide, 40m long and 40 deep, it is shaped much like a delta wing bomber of the olden days.

"Captain," Kim says, "That ship is the source of the probing."

Janeway frowns a little, she does not like the look of the ship, it looks too clean, too perfect. "What can you tell me about it?"

Kim looks a little perplexed, "Very little, scans fail to penetrate its hull, but its still scanning, I'd say it's looking for something, and we aren't it."

"Curious," Janeway says, wondering what the ship could possibly be looking for this deep in space, "But I still don't like to be probed without being asked first, hail them."

Meanwhile, Shepard sits up on her bed and takes note of the time, barely half an hour has passed since she went to bed. As she stands she grumbles that not even in a foreign galaxy can she get a good nights sleep. As her nano-bots inform her why she has been awoken she takes a seat at the Prod's helm. "Let's see what we have," She says to no one in particular, and noticing that there is now a ship that is just outside her own she looks to see if there is any IFF data and is pleasantly surprised that there is, so she brings it up on her screen and scrolls through the IFF data. "USS Voyager, Federation of Planets." She then looks over her ships scans of the vessel, "Huh, relatively primiti...ve. Crikey I'm sounding more and more like the Protheans every day." Hearing the alarm sound yet again to say she is being hailed she sighs before saying to herself, "Alright, let's see what they want." With a little mental interacting with the Prod she accepts the hail and speaks without looking at the screen, she is more concerned about scrolling through the technical data her ship has gained on the scanned ship. "Good morning." It's morning on her ship, she doesn't know or really cares about what time it is on the Federation ship.

Janeway is taken back by the human face, "Your human?" Shepard turns her head in surprise of the accusation and realises she is indeed speaking to another human, then with a frown of curiosity she finds herself on the Voyagers bridge, much to Janeway's shock and displeasure. Shepard then looks Janeway up and down before saying, "Indeed we are." Shepard then looks around the bridge and notices a few different species, even one which appears to be a cross of species. "Well, this explains the Federation of Planets." Shepard is also interested in the cross-species, in theory, it should be impossible from natural means.

"And who do you represent?" Janeway tries with the 'human' that is proving to be difficult.

Shepard looks away from a crewman and to the Captain, "I am enforcer Shepard of the Systems Alliance. "

"And is humanity a species in this Systems Alliance?" Janeway asks, trying to pry information from the human.

"We are the only species," Shepard responds before tilting her head, it appears she has been awoken in good time as her guests are about to arrive. "Well, Captain..."

"Captain, we have a Borg cube inbound." Kim interrupts. As expected the ship goes into red alert, the ship is prepped for combat and crew take up their battle stations.

"Enforcer Shepard," Janeway begins, "We have a Borg vessel inbound, I suggest you return to your vessel and prepare for combat."

Shepard raises a brow, "Do you know of the Borg? What can you tell me of them?"

"Yes." Janeway says, "They are a force of nature capable of bringing untold death and destruction. They search for advanced life forms to assimilate into their collective and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals."

Shepard crosses her arms, "How advanced are we speaking?"

"Advanced enough that you should be scared of them."

"Hmm, we will..."

Kim speaks again, "Ma'am, its a tactical cube."

Janeway turns to Shepard, "I'm about to get us out of here at maximum warp, I suggest you do the same."

Shepard shakes her head, "I invited them here, why would I leave?"

"You invited them here? These things know no morals, they would sooner assimilate you than talk."

"Please," Shepard replies before returning to her own ship. The moment she is onboard the Prod she activates all jamming technologies to prevent any information leaking from the system by the Brog and sticks her feet up in wait.

Soon the Voyager has fleed and Shepard is staring at a large cuboid, its pattern is oddly intimidating for just being a geometric shape. After being scanned it takes a total of 0.02 seconds for her to be hailed.

"Enforcer Sh..."

The borg care not for what she has to say and the collective spew their typical monologue, something about lowering shields and being assimilated. Shepard nods along as she ticks off a few things on a notepad as if scoring the Borg. "Yep, yep and yep, current score, 6/8. Do you at all ever have genocidal tendencies or a desperate lack of sentient rights?..." Shepard looks up to her view screen before shrugging and ticking the boxes, then she scans the Borg cube and looks back down to the data. "No notable external networks to hack, hail is on an isolated system, smart but expected... numerous weapon systems, fascinating self-repair mechanism and extensive backups. Full blown warship if I ever did see one."

With a few more nods and ticks in boxes Shepard looks back up to the Borg cube, "By law, I'm required to inform you that you are interacting with A Systems Alliance vessel with an enforcer on board, and for your information, I am enforcer Shepard. You should know before we progress that any hostilities towards myself are hostility towards the Systems Alliance. Do we have an understanding?"

The hail is cut before Shepard's ship is caught in a tractor beam. "God damn primitives." Shepard bemoans before activating all defences which liberate her ship from the Borg's tractor beam.

This is how a human vessel would engage the Reapers, had they not advanced enough to block subspace. With a few thoughts from Shepard, the Prod is flashing in and out of existence around the Borg cube faster than one could blink, each time it comes into existence it fires a pure energy shot. Yes, the Borg Shielding may have been able to adapt to the weapon system, but before it could Shepard destroyed their generators, and shortly after that she hit enough critical systems that the entire borg cube figuratively fell apart, with not even a shot fired. With the ship in tatters and in no state to defend itself, Shepard transports on and downloads whatever information from it she can, while deleting any information on her own existence that she can find.

Soon the Voyager, upon seeing Shepard's ship on sensors destroy the Borg cube returns, and Shepard transports herself onto the bridge with a transwarp coil. "Thought you might like this," She says before winking and transporting off the ship.

When clear from the debris field the Prod continues its assault on the Borg cube, in order to decimate anything and everything that could of housed information on herself, and without much more of a shake of the Prods wings in victory like old fighter pilots did, the Prod vanishes from existence in hunt for its next threat, something called a gravemind.

Meanwhile Paris turns to Janeway, "What just happened?"

Janeway is confused as much as Paris. "I do not know."

It takes the entire bridge crew a few minutes to realise that Shepard has erased all information in their computers about their encounter, while simultaneously downloading their entire memory bank. Somehow, the Enforcer from the Systems Alliance managed to hack their entire network of computers in the few minutes she was onboard their ship, something most would say is impossible.

"Make a note in computer logs," Janeway says after a few moments, "The Systems Alliance, and the entity known as Enforcer Shepard is to be treated as advanced, and dangerous, but not openly hostile to the Federation."

/.../

side story end

/.../

A dark corner of space

"Phase 2 complete. Probing concluded. Energy capabilities far exceed initial expectations. See recommendations."

"Recommendations accepted. Commence phase 3 - instigate the invasion of synthesised lifeforms."

"Phase 3 commencing."


	7. Chapter 7

**Alrighty, so here is the slogging match. Also, a huge shout out must go to deitarionSSokolow for rescuing my chapter 1 of this story. Cheers again!**

Shepard walks towards a thick glass window and stops just before it, outside she can see the battle wounded Indomitable and the thousands of workers that are trying to fix her up so she can once more bring hells fires upon Humanities enemies, but fixing a state of the art warship is no easy task by any means. "So," Shepard says to an eccentric man who approaches and stands beside her, the man is an odd one who loves nothing more than his own creations, and the Indomitable is primarily his design. "How bad is she?"

"She was one of a kind!" The man snaps at the Enforcer.

"Is." Shepard corrects, the ship is wounded, not dead.

The man scowls a little before adding, "Look at her, I mean, she looks like she has been chewed by a cosmic-sized dog."

Shepard allows her imagination to run free for a second before reluctantly agreeing with the eccentric man, it does look like it has been the play toy of some cosmic sized creature, but she is not here to talk about how the ship looks. "How long till she is battle ready, Q?"

The man does some mental maths before saying, "4 months - and no sooner."

"I will need a ship in the meantime, what do you have for me?"

Q Has proven to be one of Shepard's most trusted ship designers over the years and is her go-to guy when she needs a new ship built or even some gizmo for a certain task. "Will this one come back in better shape than your last one?" Q asks and Shepard simply looks at him, she will not make a promise she can not keep. "If you weren't the bloody Enforcer I would have a ban on you ever touching my ships, hell I would ban you from even looking at them." The man turns on the spot and begins to walk, "But alas, I have a prototype I think you might like."

Shepard follows the man to a transporter and soon they are at dockyard 16. Each dockyard is housing a different project that is illegal in human space, and each vessel is in different states of completion. Currently, there are an additional 5 Indomitable's in construction, each at various points of construction, and further 29 different projects ongoing. Walking to a window Shepard looks out to her new ship, but something appears off, it almost appears organic in design, and, "It's small." Shepard says with some disappointment, she liked the intimidation the Indomitables pure size could deliver.

The man mutters something incomprehensible before speaking aloud, "6km port to starboard is by no means small, now Test Project, introduce yourself."

There is a brief pause before a voice says, "Hello Enforcer, have you come to inspect me?" One could not miss the excited tone in the AI's voice.

"Yes." Shepard replies before turning to the eccentric man, "Did you really name the ships AI Test Project?" She will be seeing that it is changed when the ship is handed to her.

"Yes." The man says, "It is a concept vessel, thus its name is Test Project."

Shepard rolls her eyes at the man's eccentric ways before looking to the ceiling and the many sensors that adorn it, "Test Project, what are your specifications?"

"I am compiled of 6.8 Quadrillion nano-bots."

The eccentric man quickly speaks up after the AI, "The entire ship is made of nano-bots, and I mean everything, from the shitter to..."

"Alright, I get the idea." Shepard closes with the window and peers out and onto the pitch black ship that is currently using a vantablack coating to make it harder to see. "But, I thought we proved nano-bots could not form strong enough bonds required for armour purposes."

"We did, but imagine this, we calculate where a shot will impact, then at that point on the hull we construct 10 shield emitters. Bang, problem solved."

Shepard nods her head, with the latest generation of shield emitters that would provide one strong barrier, "Nothing much would get through, granted, but how do we power this? It would require dozens of generators, and on a ship this small, size is a premium."

"Please." The man says, "A rigid hull has permanent features. A fluid hull can change to suit its requirements. We are no longer compromised on space. Have a spa room? General quarters sounds and it transforms itself into a generator. Holodeck, now a generator or two, unused storage room? Now a generator, view deck, now a generator, canteen room..."

"Now a generator?"

"Excellent," The man smacks Shepard lightly on the shoulder, "Now you get the idea, and if you need that little weapon you been working on, upload the schematics to Test Subject and bang, change out your secondary DEW for it, or need extra defences? You no longer need your fifth primary weapon, change it to what you need. This, Enforcer, is the future battleship, this is what will win us our wars."

Shepard nods along, all this sounds good, but, "Surely if the entire ship is built out of nano-bots, then the entire ship has the ability to refuse orders, to refuse to soldier."

"True," The man replies, "But so does your bridge crew."

"I can replace my bridge crew, it's not so easy when your entire ship is against you."

The man shrugs, "Well, you asked me if I had a ship, and this is all I have at the moment, take her or leave her."

"Okay, final question then, the TX machines turned due to some fault in their programming being exploited, have we fixed this yet?"

The man's shoulders drop as he shakes his head from side to side slowly, "Those TX's were never properly tested against a true cyber attack in order to keep them secret. The nano-bots that construct this ship are the same ones that run in your blood, meaning they have been exposed to tens of thousands of years of hacking attempts and cyber warfare. This ship is as impervious to Reaper hacking as your very self."

Shepard nods along, it is true the TX's were never fully tested against a true cyber attack, but that was required in order to keep the project as secret as possible. "Then I will take her," Shepard stipulates, "But next time, think bigger, like Indomitable big, or you know, think Death Star big, I want our enemies to shit themselves at the very thought of the vessel."

"Bah," The man waves a hand in front of him, dismissing the idea, "Ship design is an art, and you never force the artist's hand. And that death star, it's as ugly as it is impractical, whereas Test Project, she is a thing of true beauty."

/.../

 **Meanwhile - Citadel space**

Liara jumps as River drops her optical camouflage, "Ri!" The Asari says while batting the younger Asari, "I could have shot you."

River shrugs off Liara's light attack and asks, "Whatchya doing?"

Liara tilts her head slightly to the side before asking, "Do you really need me to tell you?" She knows River will have figured out what is happening by now.

River shakes her head, "Not really, your hitting the Shadow Broker." The Asari looks around the numerous Asari that are donning their various bits of equipment, including Benezzia which is unusual, typically the Matriarch of an estate would not get involved in fighting. "Mind if I tag along?"

"As long as you don't get shot this time because I don't fancy dealing with your mother again." Liara shivers at the memory of Shepard's foul mood when she discovered River had been hit by some reaper device on Thessia, "In fact, aren't you supposed to be restricted to the Indomitable?"

River nods, but smirks at the same time, "My mother will see an Asari robot sleeping in my bed," River purposefully omits the fact that the Indomitable is out of action and she is assigned to a new ship. This is because the mega vessel that is Indomitable is a beacon of morale for many, so if they found out it is injured then morale would take an unnecessary hit.

"You know she will figure it out, and won't she tell it's not you instantly due to her nanobots?"

River smirks again, "I've installed it with fake biometric emitters, meaning unless she enters my room and talks with it, I'm fine."

"If you say so," Liara says, not entirely sure that one of the most powerful beings known would be so easily tricked, "But don't come crying to me when your mother discovers you are out here causing mischief."

"She won't," River says, reinforcing the idea, mostly to herself, that her mother will be completely unaware of her actions.

3 hours later River looks around a large circular room with a dead Yahg in the middle, finding the Yahg to be the Shadow Broker was a complete shock to the Asari. "So," River says as she collapses her LDEW weapon system, "We killed it. What now?"

"Now," Benezzia says from her position overlooking the dead Yahg that had provided critical information to not only the opposing clans on Thessia that attacked her own during the Reaper invasion, but to the Reapers themselves, "We topple the empire this thing created."

"No," Liara says, turning from a monitor she is observing, "I have a better idea," turning back to the monitor she presses a button on a terminal connected to it and speaks again, "This is the Shadow Broker, the situation is under control, we experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware. It disrupted communications temporarily, however, we are now back online, resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."

Just as Liara finishes the word 'out' there is a flash in the room and Rivers' stomach drops, she does not need to turn to know who has come to visit. "Mother," She says before turning around to face her and her impending doom, "How long did it work for?"

Shepard surprisingly does not look angry, instead, she looks amused, "I didn't notice you were gone till you fired your LDEW, and I have to give it to you, that robot had thought and effort put into it."

"Well, I had a lot of time on the Indomitable with nothing to do, so I got creative."

Shepard nods to this, "I know, I kept track of it."

"So then," River asks, not wanting to delay her punishment any longer than absolutely necessary, "What will my punishment be this time?"

"Well," Shepard says as she looks around the room, "As you have mentioned, you have a lot of time on your hands, so I need to keep you busy." The Enforcer walks to look at the dead Yahg before going on, "and I have just the thing in mind." Shepard then looks to Liara, "If you intend on running the Shadow Brokers network you will need an assistant." Shepard then clicks her fingers and all the Asari find themselves on Shepard's prototype ship, in a room filled with computers and systems that would make even the most powerful citadel computer network look like childs play. "But you're not doing it on that awful ship." Without another word, Shepard then flashes out of existence.

"Well," Begins River as she looks around the numerous systems in the room that will control the Shadow Brokers network, "That went better than I could have ever hoped for. So, what now?"

"Now," Benezzia interrupts as she approaches a monitor to read information on its display, "If we are not destroying the network, we will utilise it to serve the galaxy."

As Liara and Benezzia talk about how to best do this River searches for herself on the Shadow Brokers network, curious as to what it has on her. "Age 89 - correct." She mutters to herself, "Biological parents - unknown." River looks to Liara before typing on a keyboard, deleting 'unknown' and replacing it with two names, 'Mother - Aleena Sha'ira, Father - Amaeal Orissa." Sha'ira is well known as the Consort, and Orissia is lesser known, but still a famous asari actor, meaning it would surprise no Asari as to why the two well-known figures would abandon River on Omega, especially considering her 'condition'.

River skips over a few boring fields, before saying, "Unique features, Ardat-Yakshi, estimated grade 2." River frowns before deleting the two and replacing it with a four. Ardat-Yakshi are rated on a scale from 1-5, 1 being the tamest version of Ardat-Yakshi syndrome, with those infected only being able to cause severe trauma through melds, and level 5 being the most severe of cases - only 18 Asari are known to be level 5. Level 4 is also rare, with only a few thousand affected - Justicars would kill them on site, and those with it are strong biotics and are able to instantly kill those they meld with - Thankfully, River is able to use her nano-bots to control both her nervous system and lust when melding. Level 3 is the most common variant of Ardat-Yakshi syndrome, with its most infamous person inflicted being the criminal Mornith.

"Next, associates..." It does not surprise River to see that very little is known about her associates, other than the T'soni family, of which, "Siffeier Athetya and Benezzia T'soni have favourable relations, Liara T'soni..." Unsurprisingly, there is a wall of text here, but one line gets River to splutter, "... has asked for permission to..." River quickly stops reading.

/.../

 **Sparta ringworld**

The Spartan ringworld is the beating heart of Humanities military, it is where its officers and soldiers are trained in the art of war, it is where war games are played, war tech designed and tested in simulated battles, and it is home to some hundreds of thousands of warships. It also has a civilian population of some 7 Billion, just in order to accommodate the soldiers that live there.

In a coffee shop, two civilians are speaking to one another, discussing the war at hand when they both stop to look out their nearest window. "Is that...?" One asks the other, unsure if he is just hearing things. Behind them, a TV screen begins to broadcast a general call to arms.

The second civilian nods, he too can hear the thunderous drums that are being beaten to an age-old tune called Grenadiers Fife. The drums have slowly beaten all war, ever since the Reapers attacked New Saharah, to a simple beat of once every six hours, but the fact the drums are now playing the Grenadiers Fife means the situation has changed, and Sparta is under direct attack.

The drums tell soldiers to mount their posts, navy officers to return to their vessels, and for civilians to become soldiers as they should prepare to mount a ground defence. The constant drumming also serves as a reminder of the War, in order to keep people focused on the end goal - humanities survival.

After a few moments to accept the new beat, the two civilians look to one another before shaking hands for an extended period, silently saying their final good bye's, afterwards, both men return home to collect their families, pick up their weapons, and don armour.

T-5 mins:

Shepard looks across the numerous monitors in front of her, the Reapers have eventually made their move against her species, and boy, have they made their move.

"14 Systems under assault," Someone says from her behind, "Total enemy forces exceed 510 million vessels."

Shepard pulls a hand through her hair, she expected the Reapers to have tens of millions of vessels, not hundreds of millions, but numbers aren't the be all and end all.

"And their numbers have blotted out the stars." Shepard says, thinking back to something a Reaper once said to her, "Send out Condition Alpha, activate all forces, power up all generators, establish all networks, prime the halo's for activation, and divert all unused processing to the Sparta Ringworld."

Within minutes, 25 Million human vessels, from the smallest patrol vessel to the largest warships are locating themselves into defensive networks across 14 systems, ready to toss 50,000 years of preparation towards their nemesis. As this happens the Sparta Ringworld begins to receive all the unused and unneeded computational power within human space and puts it to use, in order to calculate strategies and tactics. Other ringworlds, also known as 'Halos' begin to power up their secondary functions, allowing all the energy collected and stored in human space to be either fired off as an incredible weapon of mass destruction, or distributed to where needed, such as the energy networks that will be soon distributed among defending ships, giving shields and weapons that extra umph.

With initial preparations ongoing, Shepard then gives the next order, "Transport all dockyards and orbiting industries to the designated location." This will allow Humanity to continue to construct ships even if they lose all their systems - humanity will not go quietly into the night.

Shepard then breaths out and nods, everything she has done in her life has led to this moment in time, this very second, and now it is time to find out if she has succeeded in her life's purpose. "Open line to all fleet admirals."

Shepard will not give a long inspirational speech, she thinks its corny, and right now a waste of valuable time, so instead, she simply says, "Fleet admirals, time to prove your salt. You have the helm of your systems, now go give em hell."

For the next five minutes, Shepard watches as the various fleet admirals place their vessels where they want, a few chose to make a stand around their most defended world, in order to take advantage of the planetside orbital defences, others decide to move away from their planets, making the world enticing to invasion so that Reapers have fewer ships in the space battle. Then there is Fleet Admiral Thrawn, who is one crazy bastard that always does well in war games by doing things no one sees coming, and he seems to be prepping his ships for a full out assault. Well, Shepard thinks to herself, the man is living up to the saying that a good defence is a good offence.

"Enforcer!" Someone shouts, pulling Shepard from her thoughts, "We have an issue. A 50km long Reaper has arrived at our location and its blocking subspace."

Shepard frowns, she only knows of one 50km Reaper, and that is the Citadel. "Citadel?"

"Negative, shaped like a capital ship and has energy readings equalling our own, its glowing orange too."

"Harbinger," Shepard says, knowingly.

"We are being hailed."

Shepard expected as much, "Isolate a system and accept."

It takes barely a moment, but soon a large holographic image of a Reaper Capital ship is displayed in the middle of Shepard bridge. "Enforcer,"

Shepard taps the armrest of her chair a few moments before recognising the Reaper, "Harbinger, come to surrender?"

"Synthesis, your arrogance has been a constant throughout this cycle - yet we must applaud you for your attempts at resistance. We had not expected the destruction of XX6, or your ability to reverse engineer our subspace technology as quickly as you did. Our initial evaluation of your species was inherently incorrect, we will not make the same mistake again."

The communications officer quickly shouts, "It's cut the connection."

Sensors then add, "Detecting a massive power surge. We're about to be hit."

Shepard allows the captain of the vessel to take over, it is the same man who battled the Reaper fleet in the Indomitable and she has full faith of his abilities. "I want everything to shields." He quickly looks around the bridge, "Time to..."

The man doesn't finish as a barrage of unrelenting high powered shots slam into the prototype ship. The captain steadies himself as the shields and generators groan under the immense pressures Harbinger is putting them under, but most importantly, they hold.

Shepard breathes out a breath of relief as she too realises the Reaper is not going to penetrate the shields any time soon. "Captain, all weapons are on the table."

The Captain doesn't acknowledge her, instead, he simply says, "Hammer of dawn. Fire."

The second after he says fire two red arcs bridge the gap between the Reaper and Prototype, the arcs are pure energy, and immensely powerful, nothing known can withstand them.

"No effect."

"Again!"

"No effect."

"Again!"

The Reaper sustains shot after shot, amazing even Shepard. "Captain, generators are being depleted quicker than prototype can rebuild them. This is unsustainable."

Shepard is not surprised to hear this, the Hammer of Dawn is supposed to be a one-shot weapon, nothing is supposed to be able to withstand it - hell, the weapon is supposed to rip space apart by destroying the very physics of the universe at the spot they hit, so how Harbinger is shrugging the weapon off Shepard would love to know.

Captain Hood looks at the Reaper for a moment before asking Shepard, "Permission to enter human space."

Shepard nods, the legality of the Prototype ship won't matter if Humanity falls today, and so, with permission, the Prototype ship begins to withdraw from the battle against Harbinger. "Subspace is blocked for 12AU." Someone says.

It is not a problem for the captain, "Then we outrun it and jump. Get me more engines."

Soon, with the prototype ship changing its design to accommodate more engines, the vessel is jumping into New Saharah - or as close as it can get due to all the subspace jamming ongoing in the system as millions of vessels slug it out in a fight for survival.

"Hot damn." Someone says as they look towards where the Spartan ring world should be, for all they can see is a blinding light from the immense amount of ships firing their energy weapons and cores going critical.

"The fleet admiral has given permission to fire the Spartan Halo."

Shortly the blinding light that surrounds the Spartan ring world becomes even more blinding as the Spartan Halo fires its weapon and ships blot out of existence - unable to withstand the mega weapon.

"That is what we are hitting Harbinger with," Captain Hood says, "Get me the fleet admiral."

Soon Hacket is on screen. "I have little time, captain." The man says understandably.

Hood, while technically a much lower rank, is also the Enforcers personal captain, gaining him equal rights as Hackett. "We have a priority Reaper inbound needing a hard knock if you would be so kind."

Hackett looks off-screen for a moment before saying, "If we knock it out it will go supernova."

Shepard speaks up after this, "If we don't knock it out that thing will tear apart the fleets."

Hackett nods his head before turning to look off screen, "Prepare the world shield generators, they are about to get a good testing."

"They will hold, Admiral." Shepard says, "Now hit this thing."

"Preparing weapon, it will take 30 seconds to initiate." It is a long 30 seconds till Hackett says, "Firing." After which Harbinger is consumed in a blinding white light as humanity hits it ten times with a weapon that punches with the same amount of energy a red giant star will produce in a year - meaning Harbinger has been hit by ten years worth of red giant energy.

Shepard looks to her sensor expert after the weapon hits, waiting for a status report on the Reaper, and the supernova its destruction will cause "Well?" She asks, filled with hope.

The sensor subject matter expert initially nods, "Harbinger is dead in the water, no supernova detected."

"Say again, Harbinger is not destroyed?" Shepard asks in alarm to which the expert shakes his head.

"No, but I wouldn't say its mission capable, it's currently tumbling in space uncontrolled."

"Then let us destroy it now, Captain, turn this ship around and destroy that Reaper."

After making the relevant orders the Captain speaks up again, "I have to give it to the Reaper, its a damned durable thing to sustain what it has."

Shepard nods, "I hate to admit it, but they have proven to be experts when it comes to building durable ships."

Hood nods before ordering the Reaper to be hit by everything they have, and with the Reaper already heavily damaged it fails to mount a defence, meaning many of their shots do further damage. Hood prioritises the Reapers engines and subspace technologies, hoping to prevent it from running. "Alright." Shepard then says, "Its mission killed. Download its data-banks and get us back into the fight."

"Which fight?" Hood asks, "Any we enter and we will have millions of Reapers actively target ourselves to remove you. I must advise we remain outside the conflict zone."

Shepard hates to agree with the man when her species is under such an attack. "Very true Captain, but we..."

Someone speaks over her from behind, "Supernova reported in Arcturus system, planetary shielding has reportedly held."

"Then the shields did their jobs. Have we any system with the Reapers landing ground side?"

A woman manning a console that overlooks the war replies, "All planetary shielding is holding."

Shepard nods in relief, "Excellent, inform me on any change. I'm in my quarters working."

Over the next 18 hours, Shepard watches the 14 battles play out, with each battle sustaining trillions of deaths and tens of thousands of supernova's as relays are destroyed. Each supernova has Shepard holding her breath as she hopes her energy network established before the war can handle the immense strain put on it. By the 18th hour, it has come evident that Humanity has only won 8 of the 14 battles, meaning 6 systems are now firmly in Reaper hands. Many will call today a victory, but it is far from this, as no matter the system, the amount of destruction caused by the battles have left them uninhabitable. Hell, the battles have left many lightyears outside the systems uninhabitable.

But, not all is lost, when Shepard returned to her room, she ordered a fleet of 1 million vessels hidden in dark space - the same one that Adama ran into - to attack Reaper dockyards and locations, meaning yes, Humanity is in trouble, but so too are the Reapers. No longer do they have their dockyards, no longer do they have supply lines or supporting worlds, no, the Reapers have taken a heavy hit for their victory today, and if they win the war, their next cycle will be far from easy as they must start from scratch to assemble their fleets.

3 hours later, Shepard meets her admirals onboard her prototype ship, "Give me it straight," Shepard says, "How bad are we?"

One admiral looks among the others before removing his forage cap and placing it on the table in front of him, "At the moment, we are too weak to take back our worlds, but the Reapers lack the numbers to assault any of our primary systems. Our secondary systems are unfortunately out of luck."

"How many ships do they have?" Shepard asks.

A different admiral replies. "48 Mil give or take a few, we have 4 million, of which 3.5 are mission capable."

"Our calculations say it will take the Reapers 2 years to finish their harvest of our lost systems. I suspect we have till then before we are hit by their next attack." Admiral Thrawn says, "In half a year we can have our numbers at 4 million mission capable ships. In 2 years we can have a further 100,000 ships in service, but we are starting to look at serious manning issues."

Shepard takes a moment before nodding, "We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

 **So, as you can see we are quickly coming to this stories end. I suspect one or two more chapters at most. Cheers all.**

 **Cheers again all.**


	8. Chapter 8

**RR**

 **Hikari Nova: Cheers for the heads up regarding the formatting  
**

 **kyuubi7: Cheers**

 **Serialkeller: Alright, I think ive gone too far now to change the format, (There is only one chapter left after this one) but thanks for your thoughts.**

 **Pteaset: No worries, cheers for commenting! As for another story, I am working on a one where Humanity is very advanced but lacks FTL travel when discovered by the Citadel species. Its first chapter will probably go up with the next update on here.**

 **rmw5763: Hope your still here! Cheers for the comment.**

 **Azaria: I would agree regarding too much crossover, the little 'side' stories in this is just for my fun really and have 0 impact on the main story arc.**

 **mrazab1994: Thanks**

 **Guest(1) There is a lot that could be explored, but I'm mostly keeping it to universes I know well enough to write about at the moment. Cheers.**

 **Guest(2) okaaay. Roger that.**

 **Axccel: Cheers.**

 **bla: Doubt you will read this, but it would have been a very quick story if I hadn't made the Reapers ridiculously more powerful than cannon, which is honestly ludicrously weak.**

 **3 weeks later**

Shepard is sat in a dark room, a hand almost continually brushing her hair to the side unconsciously, a sign of stress, the reason being she must now accept the cold calculus of war.

In the initial invasion, Shepard sacrificed the citadel species for her own, offering limited help and protection, because she was created to protect humanity, and humanity alone. She did not really care for the Salarians, Quarians, Krogan, etc, etc. Shepard only cared for how they could distract or slow the Reapers so Humanity would prevail - At any cost. Now, Shepard has had to sacrifice 6 solar systems with trillions of humans in, all to slow the Reapers - so humanity has the chance to prevail. It is the cold calculus of war, sacrifice a few here to save the many there.

In the three weeks since the invasion, a few things have happened, humanities mass reserves of energy have been used to transport planets and space stations from uninhabitable space or vulnerable space to numerous different locations. Any non-essential equipment is no longer being produced, so no hair combs, no tv's, no entertainment devices, etc, instead, weapons of war are being churned out in unimaginable numbers, and damaged vessels are salvaged and cannibalised in order to make one mission capable ship out of three damaged ships. Noticing the time Shepard stands and transfers herself into a room filled with representatives of many worlds, including some of those lost worlds.

She has organised this meeting because she needs to ask for something, something she doubts many will like. After the initial greetings are out of the way Shepard gets down to business, "The reason I have asked you here is that we need to go on the attack now."

"We don't have the resources," A man with a croaky voice shouts out to her.

This causes some conversation in the room, mostly in support of the croaky man, but Shepard stands her ground. "What are our most powerful weapons?"

"The ringworlds," Someone tells her, with not a single person doubting their prowess from three weeks ago, in fact their power even surprised those who made them.

Shepard nods in agreement, "Yes, each one is capable of delivering unimaginable destruction. How are they powered?" Someone says something that Shepard barely hears, "Bingo, our Dyson spheres power them. If the Reapers discover our spheres, they not only get our energy production but our energy reserves, resulting in lost planetary shielding and our ringworlds, our most powerful weapons are rendered useless overnight."

"This has always been known."

"Yes," Shepard tells the woman who says this, "But the Reapers had not known about our actual energy manipulation capability till three weeks ago when they were powered up for the first time. Now, if I were the Reapers, I would go looking for our energy production, and the Reapers can wait a lot longer than we can, meaning they will find them." Due to the immense size of the Dyson spheres, it is almost impossible to actually defend them, and with the Reapers possessing area denial weapons, a single device could render a sphere in-operable, destroying thousands of years worth of work in a mere second.

By now the room is mostly quiet, letting her speak her mind. After a moment a man asks, "What are you wanting?"

"I want to deploy the ringworlds as an asset. I want to use them in an attack."

There is another silence in the room till one of the ringworld governors speaks, "We will need to evacuate all civilian personnel. We lose one and we lose a good percentage of our remaining population."

"We don't have the space for them on the remaining worlds," Someone says afterwards.

"Your right," Shepard says in agreement, "But the Citadel Arks do. We put our people on the Arks; there is more than enough space going even with the current inhabitants."

Soon a vote is called, and permission is given for the ringworld weapons to be used; however, Shepard knows that the moment she begins evacuating the ringworlds, she will notify the Reapers of her plans. She knows she needs to be ready to go the moment she evacuates them.

With this in mind Shepard sets a date, one year from today, she will fling everything available at the Reapers, and she can only hope that the fallen worlds can hold out till she comes.

/.../

 **354 days later**

Shepard looks across a table with a galaxy map on and to all her assets which are placed accordingly to their real-life location, today is the last day of preparations. Already, the Reapers have discovered one of her Dyson spheres, and it was destroyed in seconds, but her energy network is still capable of supporting the war effort, thanks to the fact that six systems are no longer needing the energy. The last year has also had a major technological breakthrough; a scientist has managed to find a way to send energy through subspace blocked space, meaning her ships can now go and assault enemy space while tapping into humanities massive energy network. It is still unknown how to transport into or out of blocked space.

With a nod operation Exodus begins, and billions of people are transported into pre-fabricated cities on the various Ark Worlds, some of these fabricated cities have a small citadel population, but mostly, the cities are for humans, and humans only. The only way for aliens to get in to one of these cities is for them to be married to a human or having been recognised and appraised for actions that have saved human lives.

As the transports are ongoing Shepard gives another nod, and this time 5 million autonomous planetary defence platforms that have slowly been creeping towards an enemy-held planet for the better part of a month uncloak and begin to let loose fire. These relatively low power low intelligence platforms start to fire long-range shots into the solar system, but they are not designed to hit anything, instead, they are intended to deny space to the enemy. The area denied is that above and below the planet, and to the east and west, essentially surrounding the planet in a tube of energy with entrances on either side of the tube. Yes, the Reapers will and can survive shots from these platforms, but with enough fire going down range, it is not in a Reapers prerogative to get in the line of fire.

In the next 24 hours two things happen, the first is the evacuations of the ringworlds are complete, and the second is the Reapers fortify the world under siege with an additional 5 million vessels, they know something is coming, but they do not know what, resulting in them delaying any military action against the defence platforms.

What the Reapers do not expect, is Shepards next move. With the low power defence platforms forcing the Reapers into a small area, a tunnel so to speak, she transports two of her ringworlds as close to the theatre as the subspace blocking permits and uses the ringworlds to fire shots down either side of the tubes. The planet in the middle will be destroyed, as will anything caught in the ringworlds fire.

Shepard watches as the Reapers realise their impending doom should they fail to dodge the ringworld fire, and with so little time till the ringworld fire hits the Reapers are forced to dodge the shots however they can, forcing all the Reapers through the tunnel of fire created by the planetary defence platforms, separating and dispersing the Reaper forces.

With the Reapers now reorganising and counting their damages, having transversed the defensive platform fire, Shepard brings her third chess piece to the table. One million vessels spawn into the theatre, many are still battle damaged from a year ago and are not mission capable, but for this mission, they will do, having been repaired enough so that they do not show as battle damaged on sensors. At the same time, she withdraws her battle winning assets, the ringworlds, leaving the Reaper fleet of 8 million to face the 1 million.

The Reapers, now angered at losing a world and being forced into enemy fire quickly reorganise and form their now well-used bullet train formation to smash through the human lines. This is just what Shepard wants. With the Reapers entering range, what ships in the one million that can fire, fire, and those that can't are fitted with defensive platforms, allowing it to give the false illusion of firing.

Shepard allows the Reaper train to get closer and closer, till a single ship in the middle of her battle damaged fleet, previously cloaked, launches a high energy shot down the centre of the Reaper train, the shot, carrying so much energy incinerates the ship that fires it, and any vessel within 500km of the beam of energy. The Reaper shields cannot withstand the energy and almost instantly blinding flashes of light erupt from the train as cores go critical.

By the time the Reapers can react a good third of their forces are no more. The Reapers, now highly dispersed continue to the ghost fleet of 1 million, their red lights glowing ever redder as if signifying their rage.

With the first deception plan a success Shepard can only hope that the second also works. The second the Reapers are among the 1 million damaged vessels, each controlled by dumb VI, Shepard spawns three fleets into the system, one below the ghost fleet, one 200,000km behind the ghost fleet and one to the side of the ghost fleet so that when they fire, they come from every direction. Each fleet spawned in carries two ringworlds, the ships fire without care of what they hit, their order was to put as much fire down as humanly possible into the ghost fleets location.

So much fire and energy is dispensed that worlds safe from the Reapers suffer blackouts and energy cuts, something unheard of in human society for tens of thousands of years.

After ten minutes Shepard hears someone say, "Reapers have dropped subspace jamming."

The Reapers have probably dropped the subspace jamming in order to jump whatever surviving vessels they have out of the system, but Shepard anticipated this and her own vessels are also actively blocking subspace. Nothing will escape this massacre.

By the time the human vessels stop firing, many are glowing white hot, the ships cooling systems unable to handle the excessive heat that the weapons have produced.

Shepard then spends a minute, looking to what was the ghost fleet, now, nothing much can be recognised, of her ghost fleet or the Reapers. She revels in the sight till someone says, "Lost ten thousand four hundred and sixty-nine vessels, and two point one million defence platforms." These numbers obviously do not include the ghost fleet.

Shepard nods, "Ten thousand four hundred and sixty-nine vessels in exchange for 8 million is what I call a success." This victory was sorely needed, not only to eliminate 8 million enemy vessels but to give a morale boost, people needed to believe again that the Reapers could be defeated. "Have the families of the lost notified immediately, and the news of victory sent home. Get the admirals also to have a fleet report ready with haste."

With a nod of confirmation from the officer, Shepard turns around and is about to leave the war room in order to brief her superiors back home when someone quickly says, "Detected activity 5 light days from our current location... Reaper fleet identified."

Shepard turns on the spot, "Numbers?"

"20 Million." The answer comes back, "Citadel, Relays and Gunships among those numbers."

Shepard supressess a gulp, she currently has the better part of 1 million vessels in the system, and six of her ringworlds, on top of two Indomitable's and her prototype ship. "We knew this was a possibility, and we took the risk. Show the citadel on the screen."

Soon an image of the Citadel is shown, and twenty gunships surround the Reaper mega vessel like a praetorian guard. Clearing her throat Shepard then says, "Hackett..."

 **/.../**

Thrawn paces back and forth on his bridge, he is not in the battle; instead, he has been assigned to the home fleet that protects humanitys largest population hub. He can understand why the decision was made, he had proven to be one of the best admirals in the war, and humanity wanted their best to protect themselves, but he does not like it, the duty is boring, and he prefers going on the attack.

The Admiral was most thankful when news came through of the victory, but the latest update has him worried again.

"Report." He says aloud.

"Reapers are now blocking subspace, we have no communications with the away fleet, but energy usage strongly suggests they are engaged in heavy conflict with substantial use of the Ringworlds."

Thrawn grinds his jaw in silence and continues to pace before saying, "Get me Admiral Thirsk."

Soon a bald man is being projected infront of Thrawn, "Yes?" The man asks him.

"I'm taking half the home fleet to assist the away fleet."

The balding Admiral is not surprised, he has come to respect the younger Admiral for his ability to think outside the box and do what few others can, "I was wondering how long it would take you to call. I'll assume command of what remains."

With a nod of thanks, Thrawn ends the call, "Alright, get me sub fleet 1,3,5 and seven, and transport us to these co-ords." The man points to a spot on the galaxy map, "Formation B5, all shields and weapons pre-loaded."

It takes a few moments for the vessels to all report that they are ready to transport, not having expected to be called into action with such little notice. With a nod the fleet of 2 million, a little bit more than half the home fleet, transport to a location 5 light days outside the conflict zone and begin to approach the battle with conventional engines.

It is two minutes before the fleet is in sight of the battle, and the sight shocks all who see it. Seeing one ringworld fire in rage is something, but to see six all firing with fury alongside two Indomitable's and the prototype ship is something else entirely. The Reapers are also throwing back everything they have, with Relay fire reigning down heavily and the Citadel itself also giving its all.

A comms officer breaks the silence on the bridge, "Receiving light comms from Hackett's command vessel." In subspace blocked space, light comms are the primary method of communication over any great length. "On screen."

Soon Hackett's face is on the screen, "Admiral," Hackett says, "You're a sight for sore eyes." Over the current distance, there is a ten-second delay in any messages.

"I thought you could do with a hand. Where do you want me, Hackett?" This is Hackett's battle, and Thrawn is not about to take the battle from him because he does not know enough about the situation to assume command, and the Admiral just pulled a great victory, which will give his men tramendous faith in his ability.

"Hit the Citadel." Hackett says, "The thing is shrugging off everything we are hitting it with and it is taking out dozens of our own."

Looking away from Hackett Thrawn says, "Citadel on screen." Sure enough, the citadel is taking hit after hit, even hits from the Ringworlds, dumbfounding all who see it as to how tough the thing is.

Thrawn nods in agreement that the Citadel needs to be destroyed, "Leave it to me, Admiral."

Hackett soon blinks out of existence and Thrawn begins to order his ships to fire everything they have at the Citadel.

Ten minutes later, Humanity has lost two ringworlds, one Indomitable and a third of their forces in the system, and the citadel has survived an immense amount of damage, but cracks have begun to appear and Reaper ships are being placed in front of the incoming fire. "The citadel is turning towards 673,246,941."

"Its trying to run," Thrawn says, "Set chase."

The next five minutes is spent chasing the Citadel as it attempts to outrun its tail, but the mega vessel is slow. "Forces down to 50%." A voice says. Orders prior to the battle stipulated that at 50% loss Humanity would turn tail.

Soon Hackett appears on screen, "Admiral, myself and the Enforcer agree that we need to destroy the citadel."

Thrawn nods, "We have lost three ringworlds and millions of ships to it. We need to kill it now."

Hackett nods and soon blinks off screen.

Ten minutes later Thrawn stands as he sees the Citadel explode with the energy of ten supernova's, incinerating any vessel within 100,000km of it. It is a victory for Thrawn, but it has cost 75% of the forces humanity has in the system, and another 12 million Reapers are left.

"Admiral, we have a situation."

The admiral looks to the source of the voice, "Explain."

"Err, visuals, I've just sent you coordinates, put it on screen." Soon the Admiral is looking in on something unusual, but something amazing at the same time.

"Are we still under intense En fire?"

"No."

"Get me Hackett."

Soon the other Admiral is on screen, and his command ship seems to be in trouble if the smoke and fire in the background says anything, "Hackett, have you seen the Reaper infighting? About a million of them are attacking the Gun Ships."

The man nods as he pulls a hand across his forehead, removing some blood, "Seen. There is also a section of 2 million vessels running. Personally, if they are happy to attack each other, I'm happy to sit back and let them wipe themselves out."

"I ponder as to if the Citadel has or had some sort of control over them."

A voice interrupts them, "En Subspace jamming has been dropped."

Someone then says, "We are getting reports of mass Reaper infighting."

Realising they do not know enough about the situation Thrawn quickly nods and says, "We need to pull out now and let them fight this out."

"Agreed."

With little time wasted the surviving ships jump out of the system.

 **/.../**

 **Two days later**

Shepard is once more sitting at her desk, and hearing the door open to her room she looks up to see River slander in, she has not seen much of the Asari over the last year as she has been helping Liara out with the Shadow Broker business. "Is it true?" River says hopefully. "I've heard rumours and..."

Shepard smiles and nods, "The Reapers have evacuated all but one of our worlds and are dispersed. It appears they have separated into fractions of some sort."

"So the war is over?"

The enforcer shakes her head, "No, the war isn't over till I say it is over. And I say it is over when I've pacified the Reapers."

River nods in understanding, "Then you need to address this soon, people are beginning to spread the fake news online that the war is over."

Shepard nods, "I hope to address the situation tomorrow."

River nods, "Why tomorrow."

"I have a meeting I must attend," Shepard says, "To find out just what in the hell is going on."

 **/.../**

 **The next day**

Shepard looks at her view screen on the prototype ship, "Open comms." She then says.

"Comms established."

Soon a holographic form of a Reaper appears on the view screen. "Synthesis." It greets her, "Your presence has been anticipated."

Shepard has found a group of one thousand Reapers that are venturing out to dark space and brought a small fleet with her to contact them. "Then you must have anticipated my questions."

"This collective have considered your likely questions."

So far so good, "Then care to explain why I shouldn't destroy you?"

"This collective no longer serves the higher cause."

Shepard taps her chair before asking, "What is the higher cause?"

A second later the response comes, "The entity you designated 'Citadel'."

Shepard takes a second to think before asking, "Why did you serve the Citadel?"

"This collective would have been destroyed. With the Higher Purpose destroyed, Humanity came this collectives greatest threat. This collective can assist Humanity."

Shepard quickly figures that this group of Reapers are simply trying to survive, and she figures she can exploit this, "I can assure this collectives survival if you give me everything. I want to know your locations, weaknesses, how your communications are encrypted, plans. Everything."

"This collective requests battle repairs."

"If you give me what I want, I will have an autonomous dockyard assembled for your needs."

"This collective will comply."

 **/.../**

Two days later Shepard is looking out onto a human dockyard that has a Reaper being repaired inside it. "So, what happens now?" A voice belonging to Hackett asks her.

"Now," Shepard begins, "I have to figure out what to do with around 20 million Reapers that are still out there, and what to do with those that have surrendered."

"Have we won this, Shepard?"

Shepard doesn't nod her head or shake it, "We have won it when the last hostile Reaper is destroyed. We still have a few million that are hostile to us, but there isn't enough of them to provide an existential threat."

There is a small silence that lasts a few seconds before Hackett begins to simply laugh, and this laughter quickly spreads to Shepard. After a few more seconds the laughter stops and Shepard says, "Come on, let's grab a beer, I think we have earned it this week."

 **So, one final chapter remaining. Does anybody want to see anything particular in it?**


	9. Chapter 9

**RR**

 **Kyuubi7: I made it pro-human, in some ways, but it depends on what you want to see as to how pro human it is. Cheers for reading the story!**

 **Storyseeker7**

 **I tried to write a story 1 billion years from now, and in all honesty, I failed to make anything I was happy with. I will tell you at the end of this chapter what I wanted to do. Cheers for reading this story!**

 **Pteaset: I've thrown a little something like this in for you. Cheers for your support in this story.**

 **Guhanboy98: I've done what you asked in a way. Cheers for being here for the ride!**

 **Mrazab1994: Thankyou! I tried to write that far ahead, but for reasons I couldn't get anything I was happy with. Sorry. I will tell you what I wanted to do at the very end. Cheers for being with this story throughout!**

 **MattKennedy: Yup. Always wanted to see the citadel be a Reaper dreadnought or something that we needed to kill in ME3 so atleast I got to play that fantasy out in this.**

 **Guest: I'm not going to revisit anywhere on the final chapter I am afraid. Cheers though.**

 **Gregorvich: In all honesty, this was never supposed to be this long ha. This was a very much make it up as I go, meaning if I went for a longer story things would start to go very wrong as it was never planned. Cheers though.**

2 years later

With the Citadel destroyed it did not take Humanity long to hunt down the remaining Reapers and destroy any with lingering hostility towards Humanity, and now most life within Humanities sphere of influence consider the Reaper threat eliminated. Reapers who did not show instant hostility was given a choice, live out the rest of their lives in a small dictated sector of space, obeying strict rules, or be destroyed. It resulted in just shy of 2 million reapers accepting the deal and living in a cluster of around 50 solar systems.

Shepard announced the war was over just last week, and since, she has been sat in front of the TV, taking some well deserved time off, but she did not take the time off willingly.

Currently, on the TV there is a topic of great interest to Shepard, with a man currently saying, "Yet I can't help think to the contrary, we spent the better part of 50,000 years preparing for a war we did not know if we could win. We have become whether intentional or not, a warmongering species, and we have become good at it."

A second voice replies, "But that does not mean we should stay on a war footing, or keep these entities. We have won our galaxies future, its time we accept the fact and live in it."

The first retorts, "And what, or who is to say a threat won't come from outside our galaxy, we already know of a dozen or so that will need to be dealt with. The Enforcers are still needed, now more than ever."

"The Enforcers were designed to..."

River enters the room, causing Shepard to look away from the screen and ask, "Well then, is that everything?"

River nods, "Yup, my room looks almost empty now."

Shepard nods slowly before turning the TV off and standing from her couch, "This place is going to be a lot quieter now." She tells River, "Without any of your hijinks or mischief going on."

River rolls her eyes as she replies, "Please, you know where I will be and are but a flash away. What are you going to do tonight?"

Shepard shrugs, "I honestly have no idea. Hell, I might not even have a job next week, so thumb up the bum scratching the tonsils I think, well, that or hit the drink."

River shakes her head in amusement at both the idea of the Enforcers being cast aside so readily and the comment, "After everything, they just want to get rid of you like a relic of the old."

Shepard nods, "Yeah, most think Enforcers were made to primarily defeat the Reapers, meaning to most I have served my life's purpose. Most forget the fact we were actually created to ensure Humanities survival."

"Well," River replies as she thinks, "I think you should now protect the entire Milkyway."

Shepard shrugs, she will do whatever humanity asks of her, "We will see. Now come here you." The Enforcer pulls the Asari close, "Now you treat that T'soni right."

River rolls her eyes before pushing her mother away and saying, "Please." And with a flash of light Shepard is left alone in her compartment.

With nothing to do Shepard sits back down on her couch and turns the TV back on.

3 weeks later

Shepard looks up from a datapad and asks, "Is that all?" The motion to discard the Enforcers had been soundly defeated, but the Enforcer act has had some changes made to it. Curiously, it was the Reapers which swayed the vote, they reached out to Humanity to tell of past events where the Reapers actually had to defend the Milkyway from outside threats. With this information, most did not like the idea of giving up the Enforcers.

As a result of this news, the Enforcers kept their jobs, but a review of the Enforcers role was commissioned, and from this review, two suggestions were put forward, which has been acted on. The first suggestion is that there is two new tiers of Enforcers, meaning The first and lowest tier enforcer protects a primary colony, the second tiers protect a solar system, the third tier protects humanity, and the fourth tier protects the galaxy.

The second change is that an Alien species can request for the Galaxy Enforcer to protect their species, with the only cost being that they are to provide a set amount of ships to the Galaxy Enforcers fleets on a regular basis or provide Humanity with the resources to build said ships. A second condition stipulates that the Galaxy Enforcers fleet must be given one ship for every ship in a protected members own arsenal. This is to prevent a protected member species from being protected but creating a huge home fleet that the Enforcers can not control while putting very little into the Enforcers fleet.

The man currently in front of Shepard represents Humanities policymakers and carries great power, "Indeed it is." He replies to Shepard, confirming that all the changes to the Enforcers act are in that document.

Shepard looks back down to the data pad before nodding, "Then I guess I have no choice in the decision."

The man nods, "Yes. You will officially accept and sign the document in front of the cameras tomorrow two hours after this document is released to the public. Any recommendations on who should take over your old job?"

Shepard nods before recommending a recruit who has been shadowing her lately to learn her job in case she was killed. "Vega will do the trick."

/.../

3 months later

Shepard looks up from the menu in order to see what, or who has cast her in a shadow. Seeing three Turians stood around her she says, "Yes?" Expectantly.

One of them speaks with a heavy Turian accent Shepard associates with a gang, "We want you outside," They tell her. The Enforcer does not need to read their biometrics to guess what they want her outside for.

Shepard raises a brow before asking them, "You don't know much about Enforcers, do you?" If she fights them, then she will have more people than she can count come for her, simply to test their mettle against her. Leaning forward she says, "Enjoy my house of horrors."

The three men quickly find themselves in a Xenomorph hive, fed to the creatures as live prey for them to hunt, and when they are impregnated, they find themselves back among their gang. The xenomorphs will rip the entire gang apart from the inside out. Getting back to her office a few hours later onboard her prototype ship Shepard finds Chakwas sat at her desk awaiting her.

"Busy day?" The doctor who has overseen every little development in Shepard's life asks her, some even refer to Chakwas as Shepard's mother as the Enforcer has no biological mother, having been made entirely in a lab. "I know your pets have been busy."

Shepard rolls her eyes as she sits down in her chair, "What this time Karin?" If the politicians want a sensitive subject to be brought to the Enforcer, it has typically come from Karin as they know Shepard will listen to her more than any politician they send at her.

"Would you have fed them a Human?"

"Yes," Shepard responds resolutely as she rests her feet on her desk, "But most Humans aren't stupid enough to try anything against Enforcers." Shepard can barely remember the last time a human tried anything with her, and she can barely remember what she did to said human.

Karin breathes in and out deeply before saying, "I wasn't sent because you fed your pets. I've been sent because people aren't happy with your current performance. You are supposed to be this galaxies protector, yet 3 out of 5 still think you will put Humanity first in any conflict." Currently, there are only three protected species, the first is Humanity, the second is the Krogan, Wrex signed up the second he got the chance as he already had favourable relations with Humanity. Finally, the third species is the Asari who needed Humanities help in overcoming a particularly tenacious Reaper Engineered disease that was released late in the war with the purpose of stopping the species from reproducing. Of all three species in the agreement, Asari, Humanity and the Krogan, the Asari have the largest population by a considerable amount. Humanity lost billions more than the Krogan and Asari combined due to their fleets clashing with the Reapers full force, and the Krogan always had a smaller population due to the genophage.

Shepard considers the doctor for a moment before telling her, "I've spent tens of thousands of years protecting our species and our species alone. Just snapping out of that mindset is going to take me a few years, and what do they want me to do? If you're bringing this to me, they have probably already made their decision up on something stupid that I'm not going to like."

Karin suppresses a nod, "You will be happy to hear that I talked them out of one or two decisions. Safe to say you would not have liked them at all."

"Try me."

Karin taps the table in front of her with her fingers for a few moments before saying, "The Asari put forward a motion that you get involved with their councillor."

Shepard raises a brow, "Really? Do they know I'm supposed to be apolitical? This idea of theirs would completely blow that out of the water."

"You have proven yourself to our people, and Krogan rally you as a champion for curing the genophage, not to mention you also put Wrex in charge of them who with your help changed their fate in the galaxy. The only people in the protectorate who question your loyalties are the Asari."

"And what of when the Turians, Protheans, Rachni, Hanar, Geth, so on and so on join?" Most species have not joined up yet as they desire to rebuild their civilisations first before pumping resources into providing a fleet for the galaxies Enforcer, which will be a costly endeavour.

"I don't know Jane; I'm just the messenger here."

Shepard thinks for a moment before nodding, "Alright. Enough beating around the bush, what are you going to strongly suggest I do?" Usually, this type of conversation comes with a suggestion from the doctor that Shepard will typically follow.

"When was the last time you had an extended period off? Not a few days but a few months or a year?"

"32 years ago."

"You took 3 weeks Jane. But I will tell you, the last time you had a whole month off was 76 years ago. A full year? 1,673 years ago. I am suggesting as a friend that you take a year off because the Enforcer stuff can wait, most species are still trying to get themselves back on their feet and are in no position to support any Galaxy Enforcer actions, including our very own species. Go and live life a little and show that you aren't just a machine who only fulfils one job."

"Is that an order?"

"A strong suggestion from a friend, with the capability to order you to some R&R." In other words, 'don't make it an order.'

Shepard thinks on it for a while, and Chakwas knows from the Enforcer's demeanour that Shepard is trying to figure out how she can take time off. Eventually, Shepard replies, "Alright, it is doable. What do you suggest I do with my time off?"

"I think the Asari councillor is a good idea, just don't make it an arranged situation."

Shepard rolls her eyes before nodding, "Alright, alright, I'll figure something out."

/.../

50 years later

Three Krogan are sat on a rock, looking up to a construct being built above their world, all three have a beer in their hand. "Think we will have a say in this new council?"

The construct above the rocky world is a ringworld, small in comparison to those used by Humanity in the Reaper Wars, but big for the Citadel Species. The worlds circumference is going to be 500km, making it far larger than the citadel ever was. "If Wrex has anything to say, we will."

"Bah," One grunts in dismissal, "Wrex doesn't care. The council ain't what it was back in the day. They can't do shit without their say."

"Humans aren't joining it. They are happy sitting in their small corner of space blowing things up or out nerding the Salarians. The council still has some power."

"Doubt it. The Asari's are literally the human Enforcer's puppet right now. Any power they do have is just an illusion."

"Asari will only hold 1/6th of the power."

"Even less if the Protheans, Rachni, Quarians, or Batarians decide to join the new council."

"Man, you guys are stupid. If the humans say this is going to happen through the Asari, what power do you think those guys are going to hold? This new council will have next to no power."

There is a small silence till someone says, "Oh man, you need to see this. Know that Turian who tried to go through the Enforcer program with the TV crews? He got his ass handed to him by that Vega."

The three Krogan crowd around the omni-tool to watch the video and all three of them watch with glee as the Turian gets a more than painful looking bruising in a ring. "I'll never tire of seeing Turians get their arse handed to them."

"Yeah. Always a good watch."

/.../

78 years later

Shepard sprays her food out of her mouth as she hears some news on the radio in the background. Turning she turns the TV on, where an Asari reporter is saying, " Breaking news. Humanity is to join the Citadel Council." Shepard did not see this one coming as most people back home seem to not care about the council and just want to be left alone to do their own thing.

"A special set of admission rules has been made for the species, however. Unlike the rest of the galaxy, Humanity has remained reluctant to share any of its technology and has kept a tight border. In addition, it has been given an unparalleled power to veto any rules passed by the citadel council. This has made many to question as to what power the Citadel Council will actually hold in this new era."

"Told you!" Shepard hears a voice call from another room.

Shepard waits for her wife to leave her prototype ship for work before calling up David Anderson, James Vega's replacement and the current Enforcer for Humanity "What the hell?" She asks.

"You haven't read the fine print, have you?"

"Do I need to?"

"Yes. Humanity loses no power, but we do get a say of galaxy-wide politics through means other than waving power around."

Shepard shakes her head a little, "Crikey, my wife is one of the species heads and even I wouldn't have signed up to that."

"That is because you're a generation 2 Enforcer who was bred with war in mind. We need you to wave big sticks and keep the shit off of us, but trust me, the deal is good."

"If you say so."

"I do say so."

"Hmm, well I'm also calling cos I want to war game next month with the Reapers as an ally. There will be a mock invasion of the galaxy in the Razer cluster, my forces are your enemy. You will be assigned 200 Reapers of capital class and 50 destroyer class to use how you best see fit. I will arrive with an unknown number of forces. You are to protect the third planet."

/.../

489 Years later - Andromeda.

Shepard looks across the numerous stasis pods that house 50,000 hopeful Salarians that departed for Andromeda before the Reaper War begun. According to the computers onboard the Arc, it will be another 354 days till they are awoken. Enough time for her to make sure they awake to a galaxy ready for them.

Transporting back onto her Prototype ship she looks over a few displays before nodding, initiating her invasion of Andromeda. The act to invade Andromeda is an unpopular one back home, but a one most accept as a requirement. Without intervention, the Kett will more than likely slaughter the 200,000 intrepid explorers from the Milky Way, and the Remnant are just biding their time, waiting for the galaxy to be ready for their awakening.

By now, Shepard's fleets consist of vessels from 8 different species, but the most numerous and most advanced ships are still provided by her very own species. The second most numerous vessels in her fleets are the Reapers themselves, the sentient machines had voiced their desires to be used for a higher purpose one hundred years after the Reaper war was declared over. Many do not like the idea of the Reapers being used in the Enforcers fleet, but since Shepard's fleets do not enter the Milkyway due to their illegal weaponry and questionable means to protect the Milkyway, most accept the Reapers involvement.

Despite not having the same amount of ships as pre-war humanity, the fleets Shepard command are more tenacious and arguably far more dangerous. This is thanks to two reasons, firstly, all the Human, Asari, Krogan and Reaper crews are experienced from the Reaper War, and secondly, 600 years allows for some technologies to advance a little, and with Reaper input, some technologies have flourished.

It only takes a few hours for the Kett to be defeated, it was child's play really, but the Remnant, despite not expecting an attack, still takes a few weeks of concentrated effort to be destroyed. They were also not as experienced or advanced as the Reapers, allowing Shepard's experienced and war-hardened fleets to run rings around them quickly.

When all the dust settled Shepard allowed her fleets to return to space just outside of the Milkyway, but kept a small science team in the galaxy to undo the environmental damage of the small war, after all, weapons that cause supernovae are not environmentally friendly.

When the slumbering council species travelling to Andromeda awaken, they will find a galaxy ripe for colonisation, unaware of the death and effort required to make it so. When they encounter the Kett, they will find a dishevelled species, preaching of a bringer of death, and when they encounter the Angora, they too will hear the stories of a shepherd of Death.

/.../

10,000 years later

The local cluster of galaxies surrounding the Milkyway has now been conquered, with all threats to Humanity eliminated. A feat which has cost more bloodshed than anyone could have imagined, but most agree it is worth it. Leaning forward in her chair Shepard looks at a map of the universe; the next nearest cluster is far more extensive than the one she has just conquered, it will require a concentrated effort to occupy. Looking at a list of her forces she begins to consider her options...

"Will you stop thinking of war!" She hears a voice call to her in an irate tone.

Shepard takes a moment before turning the screen off in front of her. Maybe she should give it a rest for tonight, the galaxies will still be there tomorrow after all and she will need a lot more ships to take this galaxy on, and that is something that isn't produced overnight.

 **/.../**

 **Alright, mrazab1994, and Storyseeker7**

 **What I wanted to do was have a Humanity that had started to become evil in its efforts to take over the universe / kill all these entities. Its strongly hinted at in this last chapter. The whole 'live long enough to become the villian' type stuff. Cheers though!**

 **Finally! To all who have read this story from start to finish, to all who have followed / faved and to those that spent time writing reviews, thank you all! Without people reviewing faving so on and so on, I would not have had the will to finish this. (It happens guys, if people don't react with your story you lose all will power to write for it)**

 **So thank you for keeping my will power high enough to see this through to the end.**

 **** shameless self-advertising**

 **If anyone is interested in my future works, last week I posted the first chapter of my new story called "Contact". It features an advanced humanity that failed to conquer FTL, and the citadel council that has stumbled across them. It's focusing on how first contact between these civilisations would go, and what the human government would do to ensure favourable terms.**

 **Hope to see you there!**


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